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THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH 
OF ENGLAND 


ESSAYS ON ARCHITECT URAG 
ART 
I. A Srupy IN Domegs. 


IJ. THe CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF mee 
LAND. 


III. ENviroNMENT IN ARCHITECTURE. 


Ie © MET yzaiNs,. 


V. ARCHITECTURAL ACOUSTICS. 


ESSAYS ON ARCHITECTURAL ART 


I] 


THE 
GATHEDRAL CHURCH 
OF ENGLAND 


BG 


Peer vMSBURNET TUTHILL, M.A. 


ARCHITECT 


Hew Work 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1923 


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PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF 


By THE MACMILLAN 
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Preston , : rile 
J. J. Little & Ives C 
~ New York © 


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Pye COVER OF ARCHITECTURAL ART 


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peNOTE TO THE READER 


The author wishes to make but one 
prefatory note and that is in reference to 
the arrangement of the illustrations in 
their relation to the text. 

As stated in the writing, each general 
division of the illustrations — such as 
general views, west fronts, etc. — are 
set In an approximately correct chrono- 
logical order, and so have a teaching 
value in connection with the historical 
development of the English cathedral 
system. 

By the nature of the case, the text 
cannot follow the illustrations when it 
continually refers and cross-refers to 
them. This may entail some slowness 
in the reading and may be more or less 
disagreeable at first, but as_ these 
references are purely for a studential 
purpose, they result in gtving clearness 
to the exposition, as they are informative 
and instructive for the purpose sought, 
and will ultimately be a pleasure rather 
than a tedium. 


We Bil: 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 
INTRODUCTION... ibe, I 
GENERAL STUDY OF THE Caeetce STRUC- 
TURES 1 5. net 6 
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE eer STRUC- 
TURES Ce ae ae me ee 12 
Tue ARCHITECTURAL PERIODS Oe Ate e A) O2A 
Tut EssEnTIAL Parts OF THE CATHEDRAL 
MURR E CPt bg eee 3. a te, 36 
MrpRGtmATCIONA . oe a 5B 
MeEREURY CATHEDRAL . . . . . « 456 
PSMOrEsTER CATHEDRAL ... 0. 7s « «» 7O 
PPGRHAM CGATHEDRAL . . + ..: f 80 
IWonwict, CATHEDRAL“. .-. +: . - « 90 
Pieerrony CATHEDRAL. .-.-G . >. .. 96 
PeePCGRISIEDRAT (6 02 0k & ok) e698 
BPEeTeRerOROUGH CATHEDRAL «=. .. °. . = II! 
BIMINGOUNMICATHEDRAL | “ .8 «4. s « TI7 
Peete CATHEDRAL. .° . 4 .. % .. 130 
PeisBUEYsCATHEDRAL . ©. 2 .) -) s % ©6139 
DRreneeIBATHEDRAL «... «6 « ‘s © «= Is4 
MQERMIOATMEDRAL «3. . 2. « “sn « \ 398 
EXETER CATHEDRAL ripe Bia ee ee OO 
CATHEDRALS NOT INCLUDED IN THE WoRK. 174 
PLANS ae t ees Sel eye Loe 
TABLE OF fecrns: OF Giriennats eo hod. 
Ween Or EENGTHS ..° 4 0 ws en 188 
MieeeaurOr LIFIGHTS . 9.6 21a. 2. < 186 
CLOISTERS OR i ets a a ee OO 2 1 
oeietreetiousESs .) os. lw Ue. 88 


MeprrGrAPEIS,, ) 6. ¢ 6: 6 ee 180 


IX 


THE GATHEDRAL CHURCH OF 
ENGLAND 


i] 


7 


te 


2 


TELE 
CATHEDRAL CHURCH 
OF ENGLAND . 


Eee beginning his essay on the 
“Dissolution of the Monasteries,”’ 
writes this sentence — 

“To be entirely just in our estimate of 

“other ages is not difficult —it Is 

“impossible. 

“The mind as well as the eye adds 

“something of its own, before an 

“image of the clearest object can be 

“painted on it.” 

It is the same with a study of a very 
specialized and complete period of archi- 
tecture, finished long ago and under 
social, political, and financial conditions 
of which one who is not a fairly close 
student of its history has little com- 
prehension. Many of its concrete evi- 
dences remain, may be examined or 
measured or photographed, and a knowl- 
edge gained of what was actually done; 


but it is quite impossible to enter wholly 
I 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


into the essence of the surroundings and 
the periods that were affecting or urging 
them at the time of their commencement 
and in their development; they are, 
involuntarily, looked at through a later- 
day perspective and the criticisms are 
based onit. One has to study them as if 
they were in a museum and had finished 
with development. The vitalizing per- 
sonal environments, the actual conditions 
of the lives lived by the builders in the 
continuing struggle between their church 
and their state, the aspirations after 
what was thought to be really beautiful 
or the local ambitions to surpass a rival 
—how and why the artists and the 
bishops who designed and erected the 
strangely fascinating series of fabrics 
such as England can show, thought and 
wrought as they did — all this is deduc- 
tion from inert remains and_ scant 
written records; it is attained only by 
those who know the ecclesiastical and 
political history of the surging period and 
can easily read the story held in the 
carven stone. All that one is free to do, 
is to look at the cathedral buildings as 
they exist before one’s eyes, absorb and 
analyze, if may be, the impressions they 


make and get out of the seeing and the 
2 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 1 


Tona Scotland 


VIEW FROM SOUTHEAST 
VII Century 


study, what one may be able to under- 
stand of their lovely message. 

This writing is not, in any sense, a 
hand-book on the English Cathedral 
Churches; it tries to show the beautiful, 
both actual and relative, in the architec- 
ture and with. as much of historical 
correctness as imay be, and thus make a 
few and inspiring pages. There are 
hand-books many, with the fullest details 
of dates and dimensions, bishops and 

3 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


builders, tabulations of sculptures and 
saints plus analytical comments on the 
structures and their periods. To these 
the reader who wishes the ‘facts’ is 
cordially referred. 

The illustrations are arranged in 
an approximately correct chronological 
order for each one of the groups of any 
particular detail,— such as_ general 
views, west fronts, interiors, chapter 
houses, and so on, and thus form several 
regular time sequences. : 

All the structures referred to had 
their beginnings between the years 1070 
and 1225; that is, from the eleventh to 
the thirteenth centuries inclusive. The 
rebuilding of, or the addition to, the 
fabrics was continued over periods of 
about one hundred years in some 
instances, to approximately four hun- 
dred years in others; the longer periods 
being required in such constructions of 
late date, as the renovation of the east 
end of Norwich or the erection of the new 
ceiling of the choir of Gloucester. In 
other words, the structures, with not 
many exceptions, were practically com- 
plete, as we know them, before the end of 
the thirteenth century and were there- 
fore built in those prodigious three 

4 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


centuries of wondrous architectural ac- 
tivity and achievement. Not only in 
England but on the continent, the same 
period saw the great Gothic erections; in 
Paris (1163-1242), Amiens (1220-1288), 
Chartres (1130-1200), Rouen (1202— 
1280), Rheims (1212-1242), Beauvais 
(1247-1273), and elsewhere. The world 
had never experienced, and is unlikely to 
experience again, such an outpouring of 
architectural art and enthusiasm for 
It. | 

The stately and frigid architecture 
that came with the Italian Renaissance, 
the approach and realization of a modern 
commercialism, the total lack of any 
great principle of living — full of enthu- 
siasm and devotion, perhaps con- 
secration — that seeks to garner all men 
under a common inspiration — the age 
of correctness and scholarship by formula 
— the absence of religious ideals — these 
together have sterilized all but individual 
exhibitions of an art impulse. Since the 
wonderful cathedral building period in 
England and in the north of Europe, the 
Great War has been the nearest realiza- 
tion to a concentration and inspiration 
of men’s minds in and with a common 
purpose — an august ideal — under 

5 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 2 
Canterbury 1076-1184 


VIEW FROM THE NorTH 
Central Tower, 1495 


whose compelling influence magnificent 
results were accomplished. 
* Kk 

The study of the many beautiful 
cathedral churches of England is ap- 
proached with an attitude very differ- 
ent from that which marks excursions 
into most other phases of architecture. 

One seems to know that, 1n addition to 
the structures themselves, he 1s about to 
enter an unusual atmosphere, one whose 


strongest attribute is peacefulness, and 
6 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


so looks and travels, not as those who 20 
about the world to see as much as may 
be within a given time, but rather as a 
reverent student with mind receptive to 
the artistry he is to become familiar 
with. Such an attitude is, in creat 
degree, a consequence of the continuous 
seeing of building after building at 
relatively short distances the one from 
the other, and wrought both in beauty 
of fabric and with loveliness of sur- 
roundings. The attractiveness of the 
architecture soon gainsa personal quality, 
it becomes something more than piles of 
stone happy in arrangement; and when 
looked at as a whole with the settings, 
invigorates the artist spirit. It is 
further felt to be distinctively English. 
The difference between the expression 
of the English cathedrals and that of the 
continental structures is radical. It is 
highly probable that much is due to the 
restrictions of the geographical environ- 
ment of the island on which England’s 
churches were built. Exterior and racial 
contacts or intrusions of differing peoples 
and architectural influences or methods 
did not just merge over the border lines; 
they had to cross the surrounding waters 
and so were reduced to a minimum, and 
7 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


that which was built was developed 
under its own artistic strains. 

In addition there apparently existed 
in the builders, for some unperceived 
reason, perhaps a natural endowment, an 
innate response to what was beautiful in 
a building —in the structure that was 
to be the centre of their everyday living, 
the sanctuary where they were to 
worship and which was to represent the 
religious ideal that guided them. They 
expressed this response In a manner as 
beautiful as their degree of culture and 
their means could be forced to permit. 
Perhaps in this philosophizing we are 
treading very closely to that state of 
mind against which our first page was to 
be a warning. 

There was also the undisturbed oppor- 
tunity for the deliberate expression of 
feelings and ideas both in time, taken to 
express them — that is, deliberate build- 
ing; or in extent or physical area over 
which they might be spread — that is, 
unrestricted size — and the result was a 
peculiarly attractive series of ecclesias- 
tical structures. The attractiveness Is 
enhanced because the development of 
the actual building has been very 


natural, regular and historical, and was 
8 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 3 
Winchester 1076-1093 


VIEW FROM SOUTHEAST 


conceived In connection with the im- 
mediate surroundings in which it found 
itself. ATI this is emphasized by a very 
little study and comparison with simi- 
larly-purposed and  town-surrounded 
buildings on the continent — in France, 
m Spain, in Germany. 

The line of development of the build- 
ings — that is the architectural history 
—1s found in the very fabric of the 
structures, and the differences referred 
to are clear indeed to everyone who with 

9 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


fair diligence and a modicum of informa- 
tion searches for it. Furthermore, the 
development through succeeding styles 
or methods of expression may be In many 
steps, exhibiting all the phases mn one and 
the same building — as York or Durham 
or Ely or Winchester; or by one step or 
one complete phase of architecture in 
which the greater part of the church ts 
wrought — as at Salisbury or Lichfield; 
that is, in other words, one may find the: 
whole history of the enchanting phases 
of a real architectural art in the buildings 
themselves and wholly within the shore 
lines of the British Isles. 

This phase is both complete and very 
simple to learn about; there is little of 
extraneous influence to discover, and 
what there is of it is easily referred to 
its proper origins. 

It also differs from other phases of 
architectural art, such as the Byzantine 
or Romanesque or that of the Renais- 
sance, by the very simplicity of com- 
prehension, and above all else by the 
peaceful attitude its study produces. 
When one looks into the matchless 
interiors that glorify Canterbury (Figure 
49), or Lincoln (Figure 38), or Exeter 
(Figure 50), or Winchester (Figure 42), 


10 


foGeeA THEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 4 
Gloucester 1089-1 100 


ViEW FROM NorRTHWEST 
Choir, 1337-1351. Central Tower, 1450-1:457 


or of many another, one does not thrill 
because of the immensity and over- 
powering sense of bigness, as in St. 
Peter’s Church in Rome, or St. Paul’s in 
London, or still again in Sancta Sophia in 
Constantinople. One is not astonished 
by scale but is rather enraptured by the 
calmness of the beauty of magnitude, 
the peacefulness and reverence expressed 
in buildings supremely well fitted to the 
purpose for which they were designed 


Et 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


and builded. A quiescence of spirit like 
this does not belong to the continental 
churches, one may boldly venture to 
say, although they are in a similar class 
for purpose and architectural style, as 
for instance the cathedral at Amiens in 
France and Cologne in Germany. (Fig- 
ures 13 and 48.) For in these immense 
piles other evident aims were present in 
the minds of the designers and readily 
found their expression in the buildings. 
Height, amazing to the beholder, was 
the chief among the many followed, a 
quality distinctly opposed to the sense of 
restfulness. These daring ideas were 
frequently carried out at the expense of 
others just as important and funda- 
mental. Among the English buildings 
it is only at Durham that one has any- 
thing like a sensation of astonishment. 
(Figures 5 and 36.) One will often 
marvel at the great lengths, the perspec- 
tives wonderfully and effectively con- 
trived, the entrancing phrasing of the 
sunlight from many a window, the 
unending motion of line, the variety in 
form; but the most permanent of the 
impressions will be the essential beauty 


and quietude of the composition. 
* Kk & 


I2 


Poaeeen tn eORAL. CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 5 
Durham 1095-1133 


VIEW FROM SOUTHWEST 

Central Tower, 1450-1457 
The foremost characteristics of the 
English cathedral churches, taken as a 
whole, are length of plan, apparent 
width, lowness in height, great variety 
in plan-forms and disposition and very 
effecttve combination of the more 1m- 
Poraneeieatures, A seritence or so 
defining the more general of the charac- 
teristics may help the study we are 
attempting. AII the divisions and details 

13 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


that differentiate church buildings in the 
‘Pointed style” are, to a certain degree, 
common to the buildings both of England 
and the continent. Inthe former, how- 
ever, there is an inexplicable and subtle 
difference by which forms, proportions, 
parts, dimensions, join together and 
make the appeal to the feelings more 
than to the reason. One accepts the 
impression of the design as a whole with- 
out essaying any immediate analysis. 

In the English churches, the propor- 
tion of lowness to great length gives a 
stunning effect of extent and spacious- 
ness. (Compare the table of dimensions 
at the end of the book.) The window 
system 1s a peculiarly beautiful and 
ordered one, graced by a most dignified 
and often rich tracery with a character 
distinctively its own. The vaulted ceil- 
ings were developed similarly to those of 
the continental churches built in the 
genuine pointed style, sometimes excel- 
ling the latter in logic and richness. 
When one adds to the general beauty of 
the architecture an almost untversal 
charm of surroundings and to which all, 
or any, of the illustrations from Figure 2 
to Figure 12, bear witness, one finds 
before him a series of structures that 

14 


THreecATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 6 
Norwich 1096-1133 


VIEW FROM SOUTHEAST 
Spire, 1446-1472. Refaced, in 1856 
East End of Choir, 1472-1499 


will, in vain, be sought for elsewhere. 
Taken separately, however, it is possible 
to make a distinct classification of the 
cathedral buildings according to their 
respective merits, and the analysis is of 
import for competent understanding. 
Some can lay little claim to be of 
inspired design, and in other instances, 
were it not for the surroundings, they 
might be considered ordinary. For 
15 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


Instance the cathedral church at Man- 
chester 1s a commonplace building 
without distinction for size or without 
any vicarious help from the construc- 
tions or areas about it. (Figure 14.) 
The latter may be just unfortunate for 
the composition. The front of the 
cathedral at Peterborough can only make 
for questioning, mixed with amazement; 
it cannot produce ecstasy. (Figure 24.) 

Carlisle 1s not distinguished In general 
design but makes abundant amends by 
a most wonderful window. (Figure 77.) 

But Lichfield, Salisbury, Lincoln, Ely, 
Norwich — the list could be increased so 
as to include most of the other cathe- 
drals — claim unqualified admiration, 
which, however, does not say that they 
all are, and in every respect, above any 
criticism. 

The figures given on these pages will 
illustrate the general characteristics and 
claims to which allusion has been made 
and will exhibit their variable, and so 
their personal, qualities; a fuller descrip- 
tive examination of them is given 
immediately below. 

Figure 65 Is a view Gb eluameom 
cathedral taken from the east — the 


end of the church opposite the entrance 
16 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 7 
Hereford 10QQ-I115 


VIEW FROM_THE NORTHEAST 


doorways—and shows the effective 
length wrought into lucid perspective, 
varied in its lines and with the several 
component details well defined. The 
dignified central tower set over the cross- 
ing of the nave and transepts Is a 
powerful architectural feature. The 
great window is unparalleled and the 
chapter house — to the right — is unique. 
Figure 46, the interior of Canterbury 
17 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGEAI® 


cathedral, is a most impressive example 
of great apparent length and a relatively 
low ceiling. The effect of spaciousness 
is splendid and is not excelled by the 
Renaissance interiors. The building is 
actually long, frve hundred and forty- 
five feet, or twenty feet longer than 
the huge cathedral at Cologne. The 
perspective is very fine. The view is 
taken from a point close to the east end 
of the church immediately in front of. 
the high altar. One sees the rich fur- 
nishings of the choir — the stalls, or 
seats for the clergy —and the vault- 
ing, very simple in design. In the 
background after looking beyond the 
bright space shown at the ‘crossing,’ Is 
the well-lighted nave and the upper part 
of the large and distant west window at 
the end of the church. The vaulting of 
the ceiling of the nave will be observed to 
be different in style and somewhat richer 
than that of the choir. The interior is 
also a very good example of the variety 
one may find in a single building and 
also of spaciousness. 

Exterior variety of design, as well as a 
perspective of great artistic value, is 
shown in the view that Figure 8 gives of 


Ely cathedral. The central tower or 
18 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 8 
Ely 1107-1133 


VIEW FROM SOUTHWEST 
Octagon at Centre, 1323-1362 


octagon and its lantern, together with 
the western tower group, makes an 
unsurpassable exhibition of stateliness 
and outline. 

Salisbury cathedral (Figure 11) and 
Norwich (Figure 6) are fine examples of 
poise and dignity. These two cathedrals 
are somewhat similar because of masses 
domimated by a single spire. Each, 
however, has tts own marked character. 
In Salisbury the nave, double transepts, 

19 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


the chapter house — at the right — the 
lofty spire of stone and the trees are all 
contributors to a composition of unusual 
artistic charm. Norwich shows a single 
strongly marked transept and an elab- 
orately buttressed choir. At the far 
left one may descry the finals on top of 
the western front and get the impression 
of length. ‘The. tower and spire are 
well balanced, in good proportion to the 
building, and happily help to make up a 
striking exterior. 

For the example of interior richness of 
effect combmed with simplicity, accom- 
plished wholly by the most direct archi- 
tectural means, Exeter is preéminent. 
(Figure 50. Compare with Figure 39.) 

Special reference is made to the many- 
ribbed vaulting, easily comprehended, 
and the richly moulded arches and 
srouped shafts. 

Durham, in Figure 17, shows the 
general masses of building that make up 
a cathedral entity — nave, aisles, tran- 
septs, central and western towers and 
others. In this particular case they 
compose into a virile and majestic 
church, described by one as being “half 
church of God, half castle ’gainst the 
Scots.” And fimally for this present 


20 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 9 
Lincoln 1192-1200 


VIEW FROM NORTHWEST 


series of illustrations and in order to 
show the lovely settings so peculiar and 
individual to the cathedrals of this 
island country, we look first at Lichfield 
(Figure 10) taken from across its pool 
and in a charming frame of trees making 
an enchanting picture with the three 
spires — the only cathedral church in 
England so embellished. Then look 
back to Figure 7, which shows the fane 


at Hereford 1m its surrounding of bucolic 
2I 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


loveliness. Additional pictures would 
be only repetitions of the characteristics 
shown in those already referred to. 
There would be many a variation, but 
they all would express the same ideas 
and sentiments; one could use a different 
set of illustrations, but the result would 
be the same. These pictures make good 
the claim for England’s pecultarly beau- 
tiful church architecture, the develop- 
ment of which will be found an easy 
path to follow. 

England had many churches built in 
the manner of the Saxon architecture 
before the Norman Conquest in the 
eleventh century. This great historic 
episode gave to England one of its most 
conspicuous and helpful contacts from 
outside its borders and with it came a 
newer and more cultured system of 
design. The buildings that the Norman- 
French churchmen met with in the 
conquered country were of the order of 
that on the island of Jona and whose 
remains are shown in Figure 1 — a good 
example of the very early ecclesiastical 
structures of Britain. After this distant 
period came the leaven of the Norman 
builders, which superseded all that had 


been done in the Saxon churches. The 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 10 
Lichfield 1200-1250 


VIEW FROM SOUTHEAST 


builders brought with them their expe- 
rience in construction, and new and more 
ambitious buildings were started every- 
where. Some of the original structures 
were wholly razed; parts of others were 
merged into later erections. Archaeo- 
logical investigations sometimes chance 
upon a fragmentary relic of the centuries- 
old shrines. Of the many later churches 
that were undertaken before the middle 
23 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


of the fourteenth century, some seven- 
teen had Norman beginnings and records 
of such originals as Iona, and _ their 
subsequent variations may be found in 
the existing fabrics. 

* *k * 

The first preliminary of tmportance to 
be made clear for the present study ts a 
statement, as simple as possible, of the 
general divisions or phases of Gothic 
architecture ‘i England. In a very 
concise and therefore valuable history, 
Professor Hamlin has worded the distinc- 
tions characterizing it and its develop- 
ments. It is paraphrased here as 
briefly as may be, to convey an intelli- 
gent definition, necessarily of a more or 
less technical order, and has been com- 
bined with other details of essential 
information. 

English church architecture 1s in 
general divided into four classes — the 
Early English, Decorated, Perpendicu- 
lar — the three preceded by a Nor- 
man period. The builders who had 
crossed over the channel from France 
naturally adhered, in general, to the 
features and technique familiar to them 
from their buildmg m the Romanesque 
style of architecture in Normandy, but 

24 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 11 
Salisbury 1220-1258 


VIEW FROM SOUTHEAST 
Spire, 1331 


with less refinement and skill.* They 
used heavy walls, full round arches, 
mouldings of round sections which, when 
enriched, were most frequently cut with 
a large-scale ornament, a zigzag or 
chevron, and the billet. The capitals of 
the columns were of a form usually 
described as ‘cushion caps’ — that is, 
cubical blocks with rounded corners. 
The piers were sometimes single, circular 

* The character of the very early Norman build- 


ings may be judged from the church of St. Guillem 
du Desert, in France. 


25 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


constructions of enormous girth, here 
perfectly plain, there built with attached 
shafts. Most of these details may be 
seen in Figure 36. The doorways were 
also after the Romanesque manner with 
many shafts at each side, the arches 
carried by them having a corresponding 
number of members or mouldings. Ceil- 
ings were built with vaults of strictly 
semicircular shape, intersecting with 
one another, the joints between the 
surfaces being formed on cross arches, 
also semicircular, and on _ diagonals 
reaching from corner to corner of the 
compartment of the ceiling to which 
they belonged. The vaulting surfaces 
were plain. (Look at Figures 35 and 
36.) Most of the Norman churches 
were originally built with wooden ceil- 
ings, the stone vaults being erected at 
much later dates. The wooden ceiling 
still exists in the nave of Ely (Figure 42), 
and may be seen in that figure above the 
rood-screen and beyond the vaulting at 
the ‘crossing’ or centre of the church. 
You will note that it has a painted 
decoration —a rare thmg in a Gothic 
cathedral church. Peterborough has 
also continued its inheritance of a 


wooden ceiling. 
26 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 12 
York 1225-1407 


VIEW FROM SOUTHWEST WITH ClIry 


Very good examples of the great piers 
and arches and the details used by these 
vigorous Norman builders may be 
studied in Figure 35, the nave of 
Gloucester, and in Figure 36, the nave 
of Durham. In the former the piers are 
plain; in the latter, Durham, they are 
embellished by surface cuttings peculiar 
to the Norman manner. This picture 
also shows the plain round shafts 
attached to the larger piers and their 

27 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


cubical or ‘cushion caps.’ In both views 
the billet and zigzag ornaments on the 
mouldings of the arches may be made 
out. Windows other than the Jarge west 
or east windows were single round- 
topped openings, as seen in the many 
parts of the walls of Durham which 
Figure 17 shows. The dates of this 
period of English Gothic are assigned 
between 1066 and 1154. 

The second period, named the Early 
English — otherwise the Pointed Lancet 
Style — follows with the dates of 1175 
to 1202. Its characteristics are: simple 
groined vaults with an increasing num- 
ber of vaulting ribs, simplicity and 
vigor of design and detail. The orna- 
mentation was modelled after the forms 
of small plants very much convention- 
alized. The windows are narrow, some- 
times single, sometimes grouped in 
pairs and included under a single and 
larger arch. 

In the earlier of the buildings the 
mullions — or uprights in the windows 
dividing it into parts — and whatever of 
tracery the windows had, were of the 
description called ‘plate-tracery’; that 
is, the openings were cut through slabs of 
stone a few inches thick and finished 

28 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF; ENGLAND 


FIGURE 13 
Amiens, France 1220-1260 


VIEW FROM WEST WITH CITY 


plain and entirely without mouldings. 
For the vaulting of this period the 
example may be taken from the interior 
of Lichfield cathedral (Figure 39), while 
instances of the simple window forms 
may be seen in the east window of Ely 
(Figure 45) or in an exterior view of the 
windows of the chapter house of Lincoln. 
(Figure 64.) 

The third architectural division — 
the Decorated or Geometrical (also 

| a 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


called the Perfect Pomted Style), and 
included between the years 1272 and 
1377 — hasa vaulting very much further 
developed and more ornately treated 
with multiple cross ribs. The instance 
is the choir of Winchester in Figure 42. 
The proportions are becoming much 
more slender and lofty, mfluenced, per- 
haps, by the knowledge of what the 
architects were doing with the great 
cathedral buildings wn France. The 
decorations are richer and less vigorous, 
foliage having become naturalistic. 
Windows are increased almost recklessly 
and are filled with tracery and mullions 
more and more elaborately moulded — 
the heads filled with geometric forms 
sometimes very rich in design and of 
much beauty. Figure 77, the east 
window of the cathedral of Carlisle, is 
not only a very good example but 1s, 
perhaps, the most beautiful window 
among the many beautiful widows of 
England. The instances of the develop- 
ment of the smaller window into a more 
elaborate detail are to be seen in almost 
all of the church structures illustrated. 

The last regular division of the English 
Gothic style is called the Perpendicular 
or the Late Perfected Pointed and is 

30 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 14 
Manchester 1422 


VIEW 


generally dated from 1329 to 1483. In 
it the vaulting became varied and 
richly treated; the vaults of Norwich 
are an example. (Figure 53.) An ex- 
traordinary exhibition of the intricate 
design of the. period is given by the 
choir of the cathedral of Gloucester. 
(Figure 58.) Soon, further elaboration 
was sought and finally reached the very 
complicated and rich fan-vaulting, the 
most notable instance of which is the 
marvellous stone ceiling of the chapel 
of Henry VII in Westminster Abbey. 
31 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


Among our illustrations of this character 
of design a very competent example is 
the ceiling of the cloister of the cathedral 
at Gloucester. (Figure 70.) Ornamen- 
tation now became profuse and sophis- 
ticated, and technical execution was 
preferred to dignity of design. The 
divisions of the windows changed into a 
system of vertical uprights with horizon- 
tal transoms, without inspiration, and 
“was the work, apparently, of the artisan 
‘rather than of the artist. The so-called 
“Tudor arch’ —a four-centred contriv- 
ance of doubtful quality — made its 
appearance and the degradation of the 
once living English style was complete. 
The ‘perpendicular’ style has often and 
with fair reasonableness been called 
‘carpenter's’ Gothic.” Henry VII’s 
chapel in Figure 15 shows an exterior in 
this uninspired method of design; another 
is the cathedral of Manchester (Figure 
14), which may justly be described as 
hopelessly unbeautiful. 

After this period nothing that was 
great was accomplished in Gothic design. 
By the time it had exploited all its 
vagaries and astonishing essays in fan- 
vaulting, the influence of the approach- 
ing Renaissance had begun to appear and 

32 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 15 
Westminster Abbey. 1503-1520 


VIEW 
Chapel of Henry VII 
to supersede the vitality of the pomted 
method by an insular classicism in 
church and palace, the climax being St. 
Paul’s cathedral in London. The won- 
derful personality that the best periods 
of the pointed style were capable of 
eliciting from the designer and shown in 
the list of buildings from the early 
Norman churches to the barren “perpen- 
dicular’ and covering together some 
four hundred or more years, gave way 
33 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


to an architecture governed by rules of 
proportion and a fateful sameness of 
effect; the peculiar beauty of the English 
Gothic was belittled and deserted and 
even contemned and altered and de- 
stroyed in the name of restorations. 
Perhaps there ts at the present a new 
discovery of its beauty and saneness — 
although much-applied to commercial 
structures — but it may again have a 
renewal of favor and again be able to 
give delight. It will, however, be likely 
to be conceived from the restless stand- 
point of the twentieth century rather 
than from that of the centuries ago when 
it was wrought in deliberation and was 
filled with beauty and “the peace that 
passeth understanding,” so potent in Its 
inspiration for the one-time lovely 
utterances. 

When compared with one another, 
helped by having a good set of plans to 
work over, the cathedrals are seen to be 
designed on very similar lines and with 
almost identical requirements.* The 
relative disposition of important parts 
is also similar. But the resulting build- 
ings are infinitely varied. There is the 

* Plans can be found in special hand-books, and 


also in the plans on pp. 178-183. 
34 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 16 
Canterbury 1076-1184 


VIEW FROM THE WEST 
Central Tower, 1495 


utmost freedom in treatment and origi- 
nality mn the grouping of the myriad 
details. No fixed rule is followed except 
in the major parts and the generalized 
whole. Nearly every cathedral church 
is able to exhibit not only variety, both 
m general and particular design, but 
also examples of ingenious irregularity 
and clever resource. No series of build- 
ings offers a better or more frequent 
opportunity for the interesting and 
35 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


informing inquiry into the reasons why 
any particular element or detail of a 
composition has been devised in some 
peculiar way instead of following con- 
sistently the general scheme and method 
at first adopted. Exigencies and dif- 
ficulties necessarily occur in working out 
any building problem and some special 
treatment of them is made obligatory; 
the skilful designer may be able to make 
them the inspiration for features still 
more beautiful. Lincoln and York 
cathedrals give many examples. 

The general plan of a cathedral build- 
ing is familiar to almost every reader 
of architectural history. With the de- 
scription sketched below, refer to and 
follow the plans on pages 178 to 183, 
selected to give a clear visual under- 
standing of the lay-out of the parts and 
elements; each one spoken of, either now 
or later, may be found im at least one of 
them. The plan may be described as a 
long main portion crossed at right angles 
by a similar and shorter structure, 
sometimes closer and sometimes further 
away from the centre of the church. 
The longer portion is called the nave; 
the smaller, the choir; and the portion 


that divides the nave and choir, the 
36 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 17 
Durham 1095-1133 


VIEW FROM NorTHWEST 
Galilee, 1133-1153. Central Tower finished 1480 


transept. ‘The intersection of the longer 
and shorter portions of the plan is the 
‘crossing.’ The nave is usually much 
the longer of the two parts of the main 
building; it, together with the choir, IS, 
without exception, laid out so that the 
main axis lies in an east and west 
direction — the nave to the west, and 
the choir — or altar end — to the east. 
37 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


The nave is divided lengthwise by two 
lines of piers or columns that carry the 
walls on top of which the stone ceiling ts 
constructed. There is, therefore, a cen- 
tral passage — the nave proper — and 
two narrower passages — the north and 
south aisles, one on either side of the 
central one. The aisles are sometimes 
continued into the choir, when the name 
becomes the ‘ambulatory.’ One of 
the aisles, seldom if ever both, occurs mn 
the plan of the transept; the transept is 
therefore by so much the narrower than 
the nave. The height of the nave 
extends from the pavement of the church 
to and including the vaulted stone 
ceiling; that of the aisles is relatively 
low, seldom more than half as high; it is 
also vaulted. Over the aisle vault is 
an outer roof which leans against the 
nave walls. (See Figure 17.) 

The walls of the nave are divided into 
three horizontal stages, the first, the 
main piers and their arches at the floor 
level; next the triforium or the less 
important arcade immediately over the 
former and opening into the space over 
the vaulting of the aisle ceiling and 
under its actual roof; and finally above 


this arcade, the windows of the clear- 
38 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 18 
Ely 1107-1133 


VIEW FROM WEST 
3 Galilee, 1198-1215. Lantern at Centre, 1323-1326 
9 


story — the series of important openings 
that give the larger part of the light to 
the interior of the church. 

Examples of all these divisions are to 
be found in the several illustrations. 
The nave of the cathedral of Lincoln is 
selected for their pictorial enumeration. 
(Figure 37.) It shows — 


1. The central passage and, on either side of 
it, the piers with the arches over them; 


39 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


2. the triforium — or system of low arches 
immediately over those referred to in 
division 1; 

3. the clear-story windows above the ar- 
cade of the triforrum; 

4. the vaulted ceiling; | 


5. and looking through the arches of the 
nave will be seen the aisles between 
the piers and the outside walls of the 
church and then the vaulted ceiling 
over the former. The windows of the 
aisles open to the exterior. The aisle 
vaulting is only about half as high as 
that of the nave. 


In Figure 44, the nave of York cathedral, 
there will be seen a repetition of these 
parts and also in Figure 36, the nave of 
Durham, still another. 

Figure 32, an exterior view of Lincoln 
cathedral, shows the aisles from the 
outside, their low inclined roof and the 
upper part of the nave walls with the 
clear-story windows. The building 1s, 
obviously, narrower at the clear-story 
by as much as the aisles project at the 
level of the floor of the nave. The 
narrower transept in this figure shows 
that the aisles are not carried into It. 

In Norwich cathedral (Figure 6) 1s a 
fine set of clear-story windows between 
the flying-buttresses of the choir. The 
same feature is shown in the view 

40 


Pie GATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 19 
Wells 1175-1206 


West FRONT, 1225 


of Winchester (Figure 3), and finally 
Durham, in Figure 17, explains the rela- 
tions between the aisles and the nave 
walls. 

At the west end of the nave is the 
main entrance; it has its variants as to 
position, as at Canterbury (Figure 16) 
and also at Gloucester. Opposite it, at 
the other end of the cathedral, is placed 
the high altar on which all observation is 
supposed to concentrate. 

4I 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


The shape of the east or altar end of 
the English cathedral is usually rectan- 
cular; in the continental churches it is 
semicircular. Compare the square ends 
of “Salisbury = (Figure — 33),)"@tam on. 
(Figure 60), of Lincoln (Figure 65), of 
the interior of Durham (Figure 43), of 
the interior of Ely (Figure 45), with the 
round ends shown in Figures 6 and 53 — 
that is, of Norwich and Lichfield respec- 
tively. In some instances, as at West- 
minster Abbey, Peterborough, Lichfteld, 
and Norwich — the last two referred to 
above — the semicircular termination 
universally seen on the continental 
Gothic structures is retained. It Is 
wondered why the English architects 
rejected or failed to appreciate a detail 
of such valuable artistic quality and so 
persistently labored on the harsher 
square ends. 

Towers,* or towers carrying spires, 
are often erected over the crossing of 
the nave and transepts. The interior 
of the latter towers above the level of 

* Gloucester, Figure 4; Hereford, Figure 7; Win- 
chester, Figure 3; Peterborough, Figure 25; and 
Worcester, Carlisle, Chester, and Rochester unfig- 
ured here. 

+ Norwich, Figure 6; Salisbury, Figure 11; Chiches- 
ter and Oxford. 

42 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 20 


Bourges, France Cai27 


THe Five ENTRANCE PorRTALS 


the ceiling of the nave, received an 
architectural treatment more or less 
ornate, and the whole was frequently of 
great effect. A group of three towers*, 
two on the western front and one at 
the crossing, was designed for six of the 
cathedrals. 

In one instance, the three towers were 
finished with spires, as at Lichfield 
(Figure 26). The towers of Exeter were 


* Canterbury, Figure 16; Durham, Figures 5-17; 
Lincoln, Figure 9; York, Figure 24; Wells, Figure 
19; Westminster Abbey and Ripon. 

43 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


set at the transepts (Figure 34). Elyis 
in a class by itself (Figure 8). 

The cathedral plan, therefore, consists 
of the main parts — nave, north and 
south transepts, and the choir, with their 
structural accompaniments of towers 
and other details important for the plan 
and the composition. These special 
details will be looked at later. 

The examination of a series of figures, 
illustrating from an exterior point of 
view the main divisions just referred to, 
will be helpful as a recapitulation. The 
outside of a nave 1s shown in Figure 24 
— York; it also shows the western 
towers, the western entrance between 
the former and the big square central 
tower over the ‘crossing.’ Canterbury, 
in Figure 16, exhibits the same features 
as does York and, tn addition, a variation 
of the entrance by making it through a 
southern porch near the front of the 
building. Gloucester has an arrange- 
ment of the entrance door similar to 
that of Canterbury. Durham shows 
like units in Its elevation (Figure 17), 
with the added detail of the north 
transept projecting strongly from the 
base of the high central tower. The 
entrance of this cathedral — Durham — 

44 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURES 21 


Lincoln 1192-1200 


West Front, c. 1260 


has a still different variation, through a 
smaller structure built in front of the 
west wall under the great window. For 
some reason not surely ascertained it is 
called a Galilee Porch. A similar ar- 
rangement occurs at Ely cathedral. 
Transepts have abundant illustration 
in Salisbury cathedral (Figure 33), where 
they are double — not an unique occur- 
rence, however. Other parts of the 
45 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLART 


composition evident in this figure are 
the lady chapel at the extreme east end 
of the church and the spire at its central 
point. Figures’ 17, 23) andiegamere 
specially referred to in connection with 
this feature. Winchester gives a clear 
notion of a choir — to the right of the 
central tower —as also a well-defined 
transept«. (Figure 2.) 

Another straightforward choir ts 
shown in Lincoln’s church in Figure 32, 
—the right portion of the building in 
the picture, — and with it a very fine 
central tower. As the reader has 
already observed, towers both at the 
front and at the crossing of nave and 
transepts are usual features. They are 
shown in many of the illustrations. (See 
pages 42-43 with footnote.) 

Naturally with the elements of the 
plan as they have been described, the 
main body of a cathedral church is 
cruciform. Whether it was intentionally 
so plotted in commemoration of the 
supreme happening in the history of 
Christianity or was a splendid generaliza- 
tion of some artistic minds of long ago, 
does not much signify; the series of 
buildings that developed out of the idea 


is most beautiful. 
46 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE.22 
Salisbury 1220-1258 


West FRONT, 1220-125 
Spire, 1331 


These many illustrations and_ the 
references to them should have made the 
reader very familiar with the appearance, 
location, and relations of the major parts 
of a cathedral structure. 

While looking at them, be careful to 
note In every Instance how they con- 
tribute both to the variety and beauty 
of the building, the general sky-line 
(that 1s, the outline of the entire com- 

47 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH (OF ENGEAI 


position), the perspectives, and the 
phrasing of the many parts. 

There are several other features of 
great import for the composition of the 
cathedral design and of inestimable 
value in the ensemble. These are the 
lady chapels, the chapter houses, and the 
cloisters. Of these three, much of 
surpassing interest could be written, for 
they possess an artistic charm of the 
first order in their own right and have 
a place of unlimited possibility for 
beauty in the designs into which they 
are incorporated. In addition they go 
deeply into ecclesiastical history. (See 
plans, pp. 178-183.) 

The first of these — the lady chapel — 
Is a sort of anti-climax to the greater 
interior of the ‘cathedral [tes sen 
general, located on the east and west 
axis and at’ the extremes ends meam 
building. This is the position for 
thirteen of the cathedrals. The others 
have various locations, — see page 133, 
— the most notable exceptions being Ely 
cathedral, where it is on the north, and 
still more strange at Durham cathedral, 
where the chapel is the Galilee Porch and 
at the west end of the building. It may 


extend far beyond the east end, as at 
48 . 


tieecalMeDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


Gloucester and Wells, or be merged into 
the choir or presbytery and lose its 
separateness, as at York and Lincoln. 
Inj general its architecture is very 
elaborate, rich, and effective. The illus- 
Matons) of Salisbury. (Figure. 33), 
Pi temitionure 40), Ely (Figure 62), 
Lichfield (Figure 61), and Peterbor- 
ough (Figure 63) — the last two being 
interiors — will fully exhibit this 
feature. 

The chapter houses are the second 
detail of large scale; they are chambers 
of considerable size, usually in separate 
constructions, studied and _ elaborate 
and most interesting in their architec- 
ture, their ceilings wrought mn a many- 
ribbed vaulting of rich and_ striking 
effect. They were purposed and prepared 
as meeting-places for the lay and 
ecclesiastical corporations, and added 
very Impressive surroundings for any 
serious and dignified conferences. They 
have been parts of the deliberate plans 
of fifteen cathedral structures. 

The chapter houses of Wells, York, 
Lincoln, Lichfield, and Salisbury are of 
unusual distinction; their exteriors, as 
before written, are most telling elements 
in the architectural compositions of 

49 


THE® CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGEANG 


which they are parts. (See the plans on 
pages 178-183.) 

A sufficient number of illustrations 
of the feature is among the figures 
herewith — as, for instance, Figures 49, 
60, 62, 64, and’ 66. -Norwichweand 
Hereford once had chapter houses: 
but over-zealous restoration or per- 
verted religious fervor made away with 
them. 

Of the interesting exterior details or 
attached buildings, none surpasses the 
cloisters for attractiveness and very real 
beauty. Fewer than half the churches 
here shown have them, for they were 
built only in connection with the 
Benedictine Abbeys. Salisbury (Fig- 
ure 68), Canterbury (Figure 67), and 
Gloucester (Figure 70) show the genera] 
characteristics, and the plans on pages 
178-183 their relations to the cathedral 
entity. Somewhat later in this book 
they will be more fully described and 
compared with examples from other 
countries, where, the purpose being the 
same, the environmental conditions 
work out a different expression. Eight 
of the principal cloistersaremomeru. 
south side of the cathedral, a properly 
chosen location, as they were built for 

50 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 23 
Amiens, France 1218-1260 


West FRONT 


sheltered walks around an open area — 
the ‘cloister-garth’ — for the recreation 
and exercise of the members of the 
conventual brotherhood; four are on the 
north, and three — Winchester, Exeter, 
and Rochester — exist only as memories. 
Five of our cathedrals had none. Their 
architectural value is of the first order; 
the exteriors are attractive, their window 
tracery lovely, the interiors beautiful in 
51 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


variety of light and perspective, and their 
atmosphere most restful. 

As one compares the cathedrals of 
England with those on the continent, 
another important as well as distinctive 
detail will be seen in which the two 
classes of buildings are markedly dif- 
ferent. The entrances of those of 
England are approached practically 
from the ground level, whereas in France 
and elsewhere there is an imposing 
ascent of steps leading up to a broad 
platform on which the cathedral front is 
established. The effect is very architec- 
tural. The mental effect, however, tis 
one of withdrawal rather than of 
unrestricted intimacy, as in England, 
where the sacred edifice bids the people 


come in — not come up. Compare 
Figures 1g and 28 with Figure 20. 
* *K * 


We have drawn, as It were, a charcoal 
sketch of the deve'opment of the 
cathedral structure and have become 
acquainted with the several divisions of 
the fabric, such as nave, transept, and 
the like. The pictures illustrating them 
will have helped to fix the parts defined. 
The churches may now be looked at, 
one after another, and the story made to 

52 : 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


. FIGURE, 24 
York 1225-1407 


VIEW FROM WEST 
West Window, 1338. Central Tower, 1389-1407 


run along an approximately correct 
chronological line. We may be able to 
find much that is attractive and inform- 
ing other than what we have already 
seen. 


A very venerable church has left its 
relics on the Island of Iona. (Figure 1.) 
It has already been alluded to. You will 
observe that even at its early date — 

53 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND- 


the seventh century — it had been built 
in a location with attractive surround- 
ings, up on a small island on the west 
coast of Scotland with the water of a 
sound of the same name between it and 
the rather austere-looking mainland — 
the Ross of Mull. 
Iona is most vitally important in the 
militant history of religion in Ireland 
and Scotland and is identified with the 
memory of St. Columba —a tempes- 
tuous, able, and war-like abbot-presbyter 
born in the sixth century (21) who came 
to Iona in 563 and was the founder of the 
building whose ruins, with those of its 
successors, remain today. The original 
structure was all but destroyed by Norse 
rovers at the end of the tenth century 
(986) and rebuilt in 1072. When the 
Roman religious orders were established 
in the island, the present buildings arose 
(1273). The interest in its history, how- 
ever, Is concentrated in its earliest 
beginnings under St. Columba. The 
structure is of good proportion, the 
tower notably so. Before the place was 
entirely abandoned, the nave had had 
the usual communication with the choir 
through the large arches built in the 
lower part of the tower walls. These 
54 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 25 
Peterborough III7-1145 


West FROont, c. 1337 


openings were filled up at some later 
period. ‘They are still vistble, however, 
in the walling immediately below the 
lines showing the connection of the 
former and fallen roof, with the tower, 
and were pointed. Some of the details 
are interesting. Among them are the 
heads of the windows and doors which 
were in simple pointed form and the 
large doorway with its well-moulded 
arch and jambs. 
55 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


There still remains at the tops of the 
tower and the walls, an arcaded cornice. 
The church had also a regular orientation 
east and west and seems to have been, 
in great part, builded or remodelled in 
the Early English period. When com- 
plete it was a sightly object. -The 
story of its erection and then its aban- 
donment, if known in fullness of detail, 
would be interesting reading. 

* kK * 

Canterbury has the finest of the 
English fronts, with the splendid feature 
of two western towers, and possesses all 
of the inspiring dignity that belongs so 
peculiarly to a detail of such magnitude. 
The front is entirely out of the class of 
those called ‘frontispieces, as that of 
Wells in Figure 19 (or plan on p. 180), or 
Salisbury in Figure 22, or yet in Peter- 
borough in Figure 25, and about which 
more will be written later. 

The group of three towers Is more 
effective than the group of three spires 
and will be so conceded when a studious 
comparison is made with the cathedral 
at Lichfield (Figure 26), beautiful as the 
latter is. A well-designed and well- 
placed central tower, added to the 


western towers, has an effect only sur- 
56 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


. FIGURE 26 
Lichfield 1200-1250 


West FRONT, 1275 


passed by a great dome. The towers, as 
details, give cohesion to all the other 
parts of the design, and when the central 
one has a superior emphasis, because of 
greater size or better placement in the 
composition and is, withal, beautiful 
in itself as Canterbury’s is, the effect 
is unparalleled. Compare the central 
towers of Winchester (Figure 3) and 
Hereford (Figure 30) to see how inef- 
fective a great feature can be. 
57 


THE CATHEDRAL® CHURCH: OF ENGEAh 


On the front of Canterbury, between 
the buttressed towers, is the very broad, 
spacious, and richly-wrought west win- 
dow and, beneath it, a very insignificant 
doorway. You will soon observe that 
relatively small dimensions and unim- 
portant treatment is the consistent 
method of dealing with the portals of 
the cathedrals. When we compare the 
latter with those of the great French 
churches, the astonishing difference 
becomes apparent and puzzling. 

The architecture of this cathedral ts 
most elegant, finished, cultured, con- 
tained. It has nothing of the austerity 
that one sees in Durham or Lincoln and 
is not at all like that of sophisticated 
Salisbury. The entrance doorway 1s 
small but raised to importance by being 
set In an unusual porch of which, how- 
ever, It is not the principal feature; it Is 
almost lost in competition with the gal- 
leried sculptures and is wholly forgotten 
when one has entered the cathedral’s 
impressive interior. 

The study of the exterior is indeed a 
delight to an architectural devotee for it 
is so full of architectonic value and 
wonderful historic content. It has great 


variety —a very unusually modelle 
58 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


PUGU Ri a2) 


Exeter 1279-1291 


West FRONT, 1331-1350 


fabric; Norman towers and chapels 
alternating with later structural changes 
and additions — all easily recognized — 
and at the far east end a circular chapel 
as the church’s termination, — a novel 
and interesting detail. All are merged 
into a charmingly phrased perspective to 
which the ever-beautiful trees, as an 
architectural adjunct, Iend so much 
character. 

When one passes around to the north 
side of the church (Figure 2) and enters 

59 


THE. CATHEDRAL CHURCH” OF ENGEAND 


the Deanery Gardens, one sees this 
English ‘house of God’ in its fmest aspect 
and one more or less typical for all the 
great cathedrals — varied and rich in 
outline, impressive in dimension and 
distances and architectural variety, and 
always with the never-to-be-forgotten 
trees. . About’ a continentalchupenes: 
tree 1s a novelty. England’s churches 
seem to have required this beauty of 
nature added to that of the architecture, 
in order to make the latter the more 
distinctive and telling. 

From this lovely spot, the view of the 
sanctuary Is most attractive. It is tts 
north side. Far to the mght/arceiie 
western towers on the front of the 
church; the choir bulks at the left and 
above it is the central tower, unrivalled 
in design. Not only is the cathedral 
very beautiful but it 1s also very vener- 
able and full of years; having pean 
completed more than seven centuries 
ago. 

The interior, in Figure 46, 1s a view 
looking west and taken from a point in 
front of the high altar; it is amazing and 
turns a sense of: immense wsizcmia 
reality. Beyond the ‘crossing’ is the 


nave, commencing at the line of the dark 
60 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


; FIGURE 28 
Winchester 1076-1093 


West FRONT 
Remodelled, 1360-1366 


archway, its ceiling showing in lighter 
tone in the illustration. At the far end 
the great west window may be discerned. 

The length ts vast, both apparent and 
actual, as previously told. But its 
proportions do little to emphasize the 
really splendid height; yet Canterbury 
has a vaulted ceiling whose apex Is eighty 
feet above the pavement of the church. 
In spite of Its vastness it maintains Its 
architectural calmness. @Gomparem1t 


with a similar view of the famous French 
61 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


cathedral at Amiens, whose ceiling 
trembles with altitude, sixty feet higher 
than Canterbury’s vault. (Figure 47.) 
One gets immensity in the French 
church but fails to get anything of a 
personal connection with the building. 
It is magniftcent and also big, but does 
not touch one’s inner feelings. Then 
remember that there are some ten other 
cathedral churches in France, each 
higher than English Canterbury, one 
even with a height of one hundred and 
forty-two feet — Beauvais, shown in 
Figure 55 — almost twice as high as the 
church we are trying to know about. 
Another comparison of value is with 
an interior with an altitude still more 
formidable — a stone vault finished at 
one hundred and fifty-two feet above its 
pavement. ‘This is the great cathedral 
at Cologne. (Figure 48.) But Canter- 
bury does not suffer by any of the com- 
parisons with these great ceilings. Their 
study makes the vitality of the English 
proportions and architectural environ- 
ments not only the more evident but 
places the noble churches in a class by 
and peculiar to themselves, and, further, 
shows the potent difference between the 


cathedrals of the two countries. Of the 
62 ; 


wri CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 29 
Lichfield 1200-1250 


ENTRANCE Doorway, 1278 


interiors of Canterbury, Amiens, Cologne 
—the greatest Gothic trio in the world — 
the lower and English one gets more 
closely to one’s fundamental senti- 
ments. You cannot love either Amiens 
or Cologne, for you never stop wondering 
at them. 

Then, when one goes into the nave of 
Canterbury, passing beyond the rood- 


screen at the west end of the choir, and 
63 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


still looks west, one has, as shown in 
Figure 49, a view of the extreme end of 
the dignified nave and the rich window 
terminating it. The portion of the 
building shown here is a very fine 
design and will compare without loss 
with any other similar interior. It was 
built about a hundred years after the 
cathedral at Amiens had been com- 
pleted. The many vertical lines of the 
shafts clustering around the piers give 
stately effect and lend to the impression 
of a very considerable height. The 
plain untreated piers of the choir have an 
almost opposite effect. (See Figure 46.) 
The figure also exhibits the difference 
between the vaults of the choir and those 
of the nave, the former built in connec- 
tion with the original building, the 
latter about two hundred years later. 
A view of the cloisters of this cathedral 
with their elaborately designed tracery 
is given in Figure 67. This particular 
part of the structure shows, to some 
extent, how the fabric was altered from 
time to time during the building oper- 
ations of the successive bishops. The 
chapter house, the upper part of which is 
above the cloisters at the right, is 


original Norman work and_ has _ its 
64 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 30 
Hereford 10QQ-I115 


VIEW FROM NorRTHEAST 


characteristic forms and details. Note 
the round shafts with cushion capitals 
in the range of windows and the blind 
arches at the second stage of the 
building. 

The wheel-window, barren in design, 
has the Norman ornaments previously 
described. Below in the cloister is 
poimted architecture in its later expres- 


sions. A low-pitched gable of Roman- 
65 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


esque character completes the elevation 
and is embellished with a course of 
corbel brackets, also Romanesque. The 
mixture of styles here has not diminished 
the architectural values; it has rather 
made them the more individual, the 
more personal, and perhaps relatively 
more beautiful. 
* ok k 

Winchester has a very regular cru- 
ciform plan, a great length of nave 
and well-defined transepts. (Figure 3.) 
Because of its apparent lowness and lack 
of large and marked exterior features, it 
has the appearance of a_ provincial 
church rather than the third longest 
cathedral structure in England, one that 
may be compared with the continental 
church of St. Peter in Rome, or the 
great German cathedral on the Rhine. 

The view accentuates the relative 
lowness of the building, its several parts, 
and the presents quat central tower, 
doing nothing to overcome the impres- 
sion or to give the building any empha- 
sis. It is, however, fair to the cathedral 
to record that the existing tower replaces 
the original that fell in 1207. The 
builders of the newer one, mayhap, 


erred on the side of caution; yet the 
66 ; 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


church seems to be waiting for something 
to happen. The illustration gives the 
usual happy environment of trees and 
beautiful objects of the country-side, 
The choir when looked at carefully is 
seen to be built after the method of 
correct Gothic design, with buttresses 
and with windows filled with rich 
tracery in the style of the later manifes- 
tations of the English manner. The 
date of this choir falls in the fourteenth 
cCntury: 

The east end, beyond which the lower 
buildings of the retro-choir and the lady 
chapel extend, has an ornate gable, on 
either side of which are elaborated 
corner towers. Below the gable is the 
great window, exceedingly rich in tracery 
but which for our study may best be 
seen in the interior view of the cathedral. 
(Figure 52 or 78.) The transepts have 
strong projection and for the most part 
belong to the Norman fabric of the 
eleventh century (1076-1093). As an 
ensemble the cathedral as shown in the 
illustration is very attractive. The 
west front, however, is a somewhat 
monotonous composition without marked 
unity of design and consists of an ap- 


parently straight wall, divided into 
67 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


three portions,— a buttress and a pin- 
nacle at either extremity and two 
strongly projecting buttresses on either 
side of the central section. (Figure 28.) 
Between the two larger buttresses is 
placed the huge window, designed in the 
bald ‘perpendicular’ style. It has been 
curiously planned so that its width shall 
be the entire width of the nave within. 
The lateral windows are too large 
architecturally and compete for position 
in the design, rather than relinquishing 
the place of importance to the main 
window. Below these windows is the 
main entrance door, insignificant in 
importance and conception. ‘The 
strength of the central buttresses gives 
the needed dignity to the front and, with 
the somewhat sparse enrichment, keeps 
the composition from being common- 
place. The arrangement of its parts 
hinders one getting from it a correct 
notion of the real magnitude either of 
it or of the building of which it is the 
front. The very marked horizontal 
division, in addition to being low in 
itself, is an unfortunate element of the 
design. Winchester’s front, however, is 
not an unattractive one by any means, 


but rt 1s not actually beautiful; i has, 
68 ; 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 31 
Ely 1107-1133 


WESTERN TOWER AND NAVE 


St. Catherine’s Chapel at base of Southwest 
Transept 


and to a marked degree, the architectural 
quality of ‘style.’ 

No cathedral in England has a finer 
nave. (Figure 42.) Canterbury and 
Lincoln are not excepted. It is ex- 
tremely dignifred. It is on a larger scale 
than Lichfield and its beauty is more 
grandiose. Its architectural system is 


peculiarly well-ordered and has all the 
69 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


best features of the best English Gothic. 
Better than any other interior does it 
show sustained architectural accent. 
One can scarcely believe that all the 
maze of line, of shaft, and of arch, that 
today makes up the total of its richness, 
covers over a stern and characteristic 
Norman construction such as one sees 
in the nave of Gloucester cathedral. 
(Figure 35 and plan on p. 178.) When 
its bishop began to rebuild his church, 
he did not tear down his older build- 
ing; he just overlaid it with the newer 
construction in the later and current 
style, paring off the old walls where 
necessary for his richer sanctuary. If 
you go further into the choir, a truly 
magnificent sight will greet and grow 
upon you: (Figure 73)))= [hem@en: 
window is finely designed and is of 
telling proportion, fine in placement and 
of untold value to the end of the church; 
and under it is the superb and enormous 
reredos built in lustrous white stone, 
rich in sculpture and architectural form. 
This end of the church is architecture at 
its best as decorative art. 
* * * 
The view of the cathedral of Glouces- 


ter shown in Figure 4 does not indi- 
70 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 32 


Lincoln 1192-1200 


Tower with NAVE AND TRANSEPT 
1237-1301 


cate any feature in a distinct detail 
other than the general proportions of 
the mass of the fabric and the central 
tower as related to it; but it is another 
instance of the beauty of the English 
settings that are of so much import to 
the artistry of the great sanctuaries. 
All the surroundings of whatever de- 
scription — the country at large, the 
fields, the hills, the trees and the 
FM 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


pools — have been made or have been 
developed into parts of the composition, 
and with the buildings make of them a 
series of pictures differing from any 
other in existence. The cathedral is 
shown from the southeast and has the 
choir to the right and the central tower 
and transept in the middle of the view. 

The first building on the site was 
erected in the years between 1089 and 
1100, and for three and a half centuries 
went through many changes and altera- 
tions, ust as in Winchester, without the 
tearmg down of the entire original 
Norman fabric. It is written that so 
well was the church builded that even 
after all the work on the later structural 
modifications, “strange to say, scarcely 
a settlement of any kind can be seen.” 
It is a remarkable building indeed to 
have been able to be radically altered 
and then to have remained for a period 
of about seven hundred years without 
developing some weakness. The tower, 
whose height is about two hundred and 
twenty-five feet, is of very graceful 
design and is, naturally, the most 
impressive feature of the exterior view. 

The nave, looking west from the ‘cross- 
ing” under the tower and towards the 

72 | 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 33 
Salisbury 1220-1256 


View FROM NortTHEAST 
Spire, 1331 


great window, shows the Norman work 
of the original church. (Figure 35.) 
Photographs are the best means, other 
than an actual visit, for obtaining a 
really competent understanding of the 
interior, or of any other interior, in fact, 
where the scale of the details is very 
large, as in this cathedral. 

The nave is a powerful design. It 
speaks of strength, not beauty; of 
virility, not elaboration. The effect 

73 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


given by the rows of apparently closely 
spaced and massive round piers, of 
ereat relative height and stunning 
solidity, is extraordinarily fine, and the 
arches they carry are not less so. 

The latter are carved with the aggres- 
sive zigzag and billet ornament of the 
peculiarly masculine Norman method; 
there is no instance of these builders 
having used in their carved enrichments 
the more gracious decoration by foliage, 
either natural or conventionalized. 

The piers or columns are very large in 
diameter and height and of ponderous 
effect. The vaulting is extremely sim- 
ple and of an early type, having been 
erected in the middle of the thirteenth 
century (1242). It replaced the orig- 
inal ceiling, burned at the end of the 
preceding century. 

It has been remarked already that the 
ceilings of the Norman churches, when 
first built, were of wood and were later 
replaced by stone vaultings, the notable 
exceptions being the naves of Ely and 
Peterborough cathedrals, both of which 
retain the painted reminiscences of their 
first treatment. (Figure 42.) 

You may be able to note in Figure 35 
that the vaulting at the far end of the 

74 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 34 
Exeter 1279-1291 


VIEW FROM NorTHWEST 


nave and adjacent to the window is of 
different style and much more elaborate 
in treatment. ‘This is an instance of the 
cumulative construction done by one 
bishop after the other in proportion as 
they had ambition for a richer church 
and could command the necessary funds. 
The great window filling the end of the 
church is in the style described as 
‘perpendicular’ and is a most excellent 
75 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


composition, very dignified, and here a 
satisfactory termination of the Norman 
nave in addition to its being an un- 
usually happy instance of the ‘perpen- 
dicular’ Gothic. 

One has but to turn around and look 
upwards, to see a vastly different 
character of vault in the ceiling of the 
choir of the same cathedral (Figure 58). 
It is just as elaborate as that of the nave 
is simple. (Compare Figure 35.) The 
impressive dignity of the work of an 
earlier date has been replaced by an 
extreme and restless treatment; it is 
possible to study out the Imes if one so 
wishes; but the design does not come at 
a glance as does the vaulting system of 
the nave. It has a date of about one 
hundred years later than the nave’s 
ceiling. The next step in constructive 
design of the stone ceiling, and perhaps 
quite logically, was the fan-vaulting; 
but wonderful though it may be, archi- 
tecture lost something when its practi- 
tioners and patrons sought for striking 
effects and amazing construction. It 
is said that the fan-vaulting originated 
i the very fine cloisters of this same 
cathedral of Gloucester, to which refer- 
ence will be made immediately. 

76 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 35 


- Gloucester 1089-1100 


INTERIOR OF Nave, LookInG WEstT 
Norman Nave Vaulted, 1239-1242 


These cloisters are the most celebrated 
in the kingdom. (Figure 70.) The 
ceiling 1s a splendid and perfect example 
of fan-vaulting at its best, is detailed in 
a very rich manner, and has marvellous 
effect of perspective. It is well to 
remember that the craftsmanship neces- 
sary to actually build these intricate 
ceilings and windows and the great 
cathedrals to which they were attached, 
was in its way the counterpart of the 

| 77 


e 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


skill required to design them — effective 
team-work with wonderful results. The 
cloisters were erected between 1341 and 
1412 and are glazed. If one were not 
wholly occupied in wondering at the 
ceiling and the beauty of the perspective, 
a distinct loss of values would be felt 
because of the presence of glass. It 
interferes with a free extent of seeing 
and materially affects the impression of 
largeness. Glazing, however, was pecul- 
ar to the English cloisters by reason of 
the climate. 

Of fan-vaulting other examples may 
be seen at Peterborough (Figure 63), 
at Ely, at Oxford, at Canterbury m 
its north transept; its apogee was in 
Henry VII’s chapel at Westminster. 

Keeping Gloucester’s very beautiful 
cloistered walk in one’s mind, a few con- 
tinental cloisters may be studied for 
comparisons. 

The first is connected with the church 
of St. Gregory at Valladolid in Spain. 
(Figure 72.) The designer of this com- 
position has evidently put clear sunlight 
on his architectural palette. It as 
southern in its brightness and Spanish 
in its extreme elaboration. One might 


wish to add to the picture a green-laden 
78 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


. - FIGURE 36 
Durham 1095-1133 


INTERIOR OF NAveE, LooKING WEST 
Vaulted, 1133. West Window, 1341. 


bough of a tree to go athwart the bril- 
liancy and perhaps increase the beauty. 
There is no suggestion of glazing in this 
cloister and there was no need for it. 
The second is at the monastery of 
Belem at Batalha in Portugal, and is 
fully able to tell its own tale. (Figure 
71.) Nor is glass here nor im the third 
example — the famous and enchanting 
cloister of the church of San Paolo 
in Rome. (Figure 73.) This is most 
charming and fanciful in design, strictly, 
79 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGEAND 


yet freely Renaissance in character, rich 
with mosaic-inlay in the friezes and on 
the columns, the whole made the more 
grateful as a place of retreat by the 
shrubs and plants that grace the space 
the walls enclose. AII these southern 
cloisters are beautiful in design and have 
individual claims for attractiveness. 
They are responsive to their respective 
environments. But one is inclined to 
look at them more as examples of archi- 
tecture and feels no readiness to sub- 
stitute them for the very personal 
English compositions. 
* kK 

Durham is one of the very venerable 
members of the fraternity of English 
cathedrals, founded and carried to its 
present-day completion under the sixth 
bishop of the See. (Figure 5.) As long 
ago as the year 1095 it was commenced, 
and in the years that followed soon after 
the usual additions and changes were 
made until the coming of the fifteenth 
century, when the work was practically 
finished. One walks down the tree- 
bordered road in front of the church set 
in its place at the top of the bluff on 
the far side of the rrver — named Wear 


— and soon reaches the Prebend’s 
80 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 37 


Lincoin 1192-1200 


INTERIOR OF NAvE, LookInGc WEsT 
1260-1280 


Bridge, a sightly construction; then 
crossing over the slow-moving stream, 
one enters a broad path on this side 
leading down to the water, when in 
front of him and above his eyes appears 
this view of Durham’s inspiring pile 
lifting its three towers and_ splendid 
bulk with supreme dignity. AI[ this is 
not very fully expressed in the picture 


nor in the words that try to tell of it. 
81 


THE GATHEDRAL.CHURCH . OR” ENGR 


None other of the great English 
cathedrals has such an appearance of 
withdrawal or aloofness as Durham on 
its high seat. Severe in character and 
outline, it has, in views from any con- 
siderable distance, apparently less than 
the usual abundance of architectural 
detail, and its effect thus becomes one of 
general form, proportion, and balance; 
yet the beauty of the situation Is a 
conspicuous asset of Its Impressiveness, 
and the quality loses Irttle of its power 
even when winter has bared the branches 
of the trees and stiffened the river; the 
dignified shrine of St. Cuthbert still 
remains forbidding and majestic. 

The closer view, in Figure 17, gives the 
cathedral with a more discernible detail 
and shows particularly well the some- 
what unusual feature of a Galilee Porch, 
built at the front and beneath the 
large west window (1133-1143). This 
Galilee is also the lady chapel and is an 
unique Instance of Its occurrence at the 
west end of a cathedral church. It 
found itself there, not by preference of 
the location but because when its bishop- 
builder commenced it in the canonical 
place at the east end of his church, and 


there appeared many cracks and defects 
82 


PoeeeALTHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 38 


Lincoln 1192-1200 


INTERIOR, LOOKING WEST THROUGH CHOIR 
Nave Vaulted, 1260. Choir Vaulted, 1209-1235 


due to the work done on previous 
constructions at the spot, it was accepted 
as an indication that the place was 
acceptable neither to God nor St. Cuth- 
bert, and the other end of the building 
was tried. 

The western towers, up to a line just 
above the great window, belong to the 


original structure of some eight hundred 
83 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


years ago. Their upper parts, very 
varied and most excellent in design, 
were built in the early part of the thir- 
teenth century. A specially interesting 
detail of the front is the large semicir- 
cular arch shown immediately above the 
window. It is a portion of the first 
building operations. The window itself 
was built two and a half centuries after 
the cathedral was founded. The central 
tower is of noble proportions but entirely 
a later erection — finished in 1480. Its 
predecessor — the old Norman tower — 
has wholly disappeared. Other features 
of the edifice may be studied in this view 
with advantage to one’s architectural 
knowledge. 

The interior of the nave is both 
impressive and solemn. (Figure 36.) 
It is a combination of great vigor and 
power. Its parts are massive and even 
its minor details approach the heroic in 
size; but the picture does not give the 
effect one recetves when the huge piers 
can be actually touched and the hands 
laid into the decorative patterns cut 
inches deep on their surfaces. 

The general notion of the unit of the 
design of the cathedral building is here 


clearly shown at the middle of the nave 
84. 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 39 
Lichfteld 1200-1250 


INTERIOR, Lookinc East 
Presbytery, 1325 


wall, where you can see a complete 
modulus — or theme, so to speak — 
made up of two arches supported at their 
further ends on square piers and at the 
centre on the huge cylindrical pier — 
the latter between the two former. This 
unit is repeated, as you will see, through- 
out the composition, with more or less 
variation. On all sides of the square 


piers are grouped smaller plain columns. 
ay 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


On the face of the pier towards the nave, 
shafts attached to the stonework run up 
through the triforrum and clear-story — 
or the upper parts of the nave walls 
—to receive and carry the ribs of the 
vaulting of the ceiling. These are very 
important architectonic members, as 
they effectually tie the several parts of 
the design together into an organic 
whole. Further on in this book the 
criticism here made will help to show 
their importance as functions of a 
design, particularly when they are 
absent. The arches smaller in height 
than the arches of the nave, and shown 
in the stage immediately above the 
latter, are in that portion of the system 
called the trifortum and which opens 
into the space over the vaulted ceiling 
of the aisle of the church and the roof 
just over It. 

This roof may be seen in many of the 
exterior views of the cathedrals shown 
on these pages. Above this and between 
the vaulting ribs of the ceiling are the 
windows of the clear-story, the principal 
source of light for the interior of the 
cathedral. Many of the details may be 
recognized as having been described 
earlier in this writing. You may be 

86 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 40 
Salisbury 1218-1258 


INTERIOR, LOOKING WEsT 


able to decipher in the illustrations the 
characteristic Norman decorative treat- 
ment of the arches. 

The ceilmg vaulting ts the original 
construction of about 1133. It is very 
direct and simple; compare it with the 
ceiling of Gloucester’s choir shown in 
Figure 48. The west window does not 
impress the writer as being of more than 
ordinary quality; this is very evident if 
it be studied in comparison with such 


an one as that of Gloucester shown in 
87 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


Figure 35, or of Canterbury, in Figure 
49, both west windows. 

A ‘hand-book’ detail may be of 
interest when one studies the nave of 
Durham; it is written to enable the 
reader to get a notion of the scale of the 
mterior. The pier, with the clustered 
columns, covers an area of two hundred 
and twenty-five feet on the floor — that 
Is, a space fifteen feet long and the same 
in width. The cylindrical piers are 
twenty-three feet in circumference or, 
say, seven and a half feet in diameter. 
These dimensions are really huge and, 
when they are comprehended, the im- 
pressiveness of the entire structure keeps 
pace with the knowledge of them. 

The choir is shown in Figure 43. The 
architectural system of the nave is con- 
tinued into it. The most outstanding 
detail, the rose window — in itself un- 
English — is meagre and not conspicuous 
as a successful composition. It would 
take much rich glazing to overcome the 
poverty of the design. If you will look 
at a real French rose window, a detail in 
which the Gallic architects excelled 
infinitely well, you will see how poor 
Durham’s window is. Look at Figures 


13 and 47 and then back again at Fig- 
88 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


ye FIGURE 41 
York 1225-1407 


Cuorr, Looxine East, wir Lapy CHAPEL 
1362-1372 
East Window, 1407 


ure 43. The English architects could not 
make the window English enough to 
merge it into a cathedral structure 
belonging peculiarly to their own island 
styles. It was not lack of ability nor 
timidity in design nor the technique of 
construction, for their cathedrals emphat- 
ically testify to the contrary. They did 
not feel the feature well enough to 
design it and produce something that 
would compete with the French artists. 
89 


THE CATHEDRAL, CHURCH OFV ENGI 


Their energies or inclination followed 
differing paths and attained different 
yet most beautiful results. The lower 
part of the choir ts meffective and It Is so 
because of the interferences of the altar 
screen and the window system behind 
it; the former ts a very elaborate con- 
struction (1380), but is a detail com- 
posed entirely for itself. Altar screens 
of very much better relative design can 
be seen in the cathedrals of Lichfteld 
(Figure 39) and of Ely (Figure 45). See 
also plan on page 179. 

* *K * 

The exterior of Norwich cathedral, in 
Figure 6, is striking and promises an 
architectural interest that a closer in- 
vestigation does not make good. Many 
details are attractive both in themselves 
and because of their places in architec- 
tural history; but there are others that 
neither merit attention nor are par- 
ticularly good in design. No question 
can arise as to the beauty, the distinction, 
and artistic excellence of the interior. 
The view in this illustration of the out- 
side of the church ts the most telling 
the cathedral has to offer. The spire is 
very effective. The square tower on 
which it stands is Norman work of quite 

90 : 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 42 
Ely 1107-1133 


INTERIOR, LOOKING WEST THROUGH CHOIR 
With Octagon at Crossing. 1323-1362 


unusual detail. The present spire, after 
a number of vicissitudes to 1ts predeces- 
sor, burning being the last, did not come 
into existence until the latter part of 
the fifteenth century (1446-1472). To 
find its place as a design, compare it with 
the spire of Salisbury cathedral shown 
in Figure 68. 

The semicircular east end with which 

gi 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


the cathedral was first built has been 
retained and is shown in this view; in 
connection with it are the pronounced 
flying-buttresses and the large, ornate 
clear-story windows that stand between 
them. Almost all the round ends which 
their early masons constructed in the 
Norman manner have been replaced by 
the square English type. The remains 
of the earlier parts are often uncovered, 
and it is interesting when it is found 
that they have been buried somewhere 
in the later erections and preserved for 
a possible discovery long years after, 
rather than destroyed completely. 

Another very curious and unbeautiful 
feature 1s the broad windows with square 
heads seen just below where the flying- 
buttresses begin to rise upwards. They 
are built so high on the outer walls of 
the aisles that the roofs of the latter are 
compelled to be almost flat in order not 
to interfere with the clear-story windows 
above; the result is the loss of a very 
effective roof detail; the design suffers 
thereby. Study this feature compara- 
tively as it is shown in many of the 
views of exteriors. 

The exterior of the nave walls, of 
which but a fraction is shown in the 

g2 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 43 
Durham 1095-1133 


Cuotr, Looxinc East 
1236-1290 


figure, Is an interesting piece of the 
original Norman work, not much dis- 
turbed by alteration. 

‘The west front, fortunately not among 
the illustrations in this book, is a most 
inept and inartistic piece of design. In 
general it has some resemblance to 
the front of the cathedral of Winchester 
in the divisions and treatment, and an 

93 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF "ENGEAMT? 


approximate idea of it can be obtained 
by looking at the latter front m Figure 
28. Norwich’s front is certamly neither 
worth serious study nor yet a visit. 

The interior will not disappoint either 
in splendid general effect or most 
interesting architectural design. (Fig- 
ure 53.) The nave ts genuine Norman 
work which one rejoices to see. It was 
built in the half dozen decades begin- 
ning in 1091 and shows, with definition, 
the architectural divisions of the main 
walls of a cathedral structure — the nave 
arcade — the triforium and the clear- 
story. The ponderous forms of the 
details, the round arches and_ virile 
proportions that belong to the un- 
disturbed and unmodified Norman style, 
lend vastly to an effect of solidity, per- 
manency, poise, and dignity. 

The ceiling vault was built late mn the 
fifteenth century and is in the style 
called ‘perpendicular’ and is _ recog- 
nizable by the short cross ribs in addition 
to the main structural ones. The former 
add to the intricacy and restlessness of 
effect, but not to greater beauty nor 
strength and stability of the vault. 

The choir and presbytery, in Figure 44, 
is a lofty impressive interior with the 

04 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 44 
York 1225-1407 


INTERIOR OF NAve, LooKkinc WEST 
Nave, 1291-1345. West Window, 1338 


French semicircular end (already spoken 
about), beautiful windows, and elabo- 
rate ceiling. The lower arcade at erther 
side (shown in the brighter portion of 
the picture) is built with ‘four-centred’ 
arches that belong to the ‘perpendicular’ 
style — also known as “Tudor work’ — 
and much out of keeping with the archi- 
tectural spirit of the rest of the build- 
ing. They are the hither end of the 
05 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


architectural path whose beginning is 
shown in the Norman arches above them 
and around them at the semicircular end 
of the church, back of the high altar, 
both in the trifortum and the nave level. 
A comparison picture (Figure 55) is the 
interior of the French church at Beau- 
vais, also planned with a round end and 
whose date is the middle of the four- 
teenth century (1337) and can be studied 
to advantage for the difference between 
an English and a French expression of 
the same feature. This French building 
was erected to surpass the height of the 
cathedral at Amiens (142’ vs. 140’), 
civic emulation being the inspiration 
rather than the particular beauty of the 
building. The mental effect of the 
interior, while fine, is almost wholly 
restricted to loftiness and wonderment; 
that of Figure 54 exhibits an adequate 
loftiness and at the same time most 
excellent and normal architectural pro- 
portions and taste, together with a 
spaciousness rivalling anything on the 
continent. In addition it has poise. 
* kK & 

Hereford has neither a large nor a 

striking cathedral church. The most 


attractive view of It is across the town. 
96 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 45 
Ety 1107-1133 


CuHorr AND East WINDow 
1220-1254 
Neither has its plan much of unity, a 
quality that should and could exist at 
the same time with variety even where 
the latter has been carried to an extreme. 
When one studies the plan technically, 
it does not give a sense of coherence; it 
has the effect of a building made up from 
an unordered aggregation of parts, and 
the view given in the figure seems to tell 
the same tale. (Figure 30.) It was pri- 
97 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


marily of Norman origin, of which many 
interesting parts still remain, and has had 
the usual modification and addition so 
common to its fellow cathedral struc- 
tures. The central tower misses of 
effect; It appears to have sunken into 
the building; in some views it is more 
justly seen and with greater satisfaction. 
In its later parts the church ts notable 
as a fine example of a building in the 
Decorated style. 

The treatment of the upper part of 
the wall of the lady chapel — the struc- 
ture at the left of the picture — is very 
successful and is characteristically Nor- 
man...The cathedral repays) 4 con- 
scientious study and ts well worth a visit 
if only to reproduce before one’s eyes 
the view of it given in Figure 7. 

The period of its original construction 
was from the end of the eleventh cen- 
tury (1099), extending a few years into 
the twelfth century (11145), —sixteen 
years in all. The north transept, shown 
in Figure 30, was rebuilt two centuries 
later (1275-1292). 

* OK CK 

Ely is an inspiring and imposing sight. 

(Figure 8.) In stateliness, it is sur- 


passed only by Durham or by Lincoln. 
98 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 46 
Canterbury 1070-1184 


INTERIOR, LOOKING THROUGH CHOIR 

Chor, 1175-1184. Nave, 1379-1400 
It seems to be placed on the ground in a 
particularly noble and stable manner. 
It is a commanding and assertive archi- 
tectural entity. It has wonderful com- 
plexity and great originality of outline. 
It is effective and grand as seen in this 
view. Other aspects are also fine and 
vary continually as the larger elements 
of the design move on each other 
according as the pomnt of view ts changed 

99 


THE CATHEDRAL GHURCH OF ENGIAND 


and new combinations are formed. This, 
naturally, 1s true only of buildings of 
magnitude and whose formative details 
are on a large scale and, furthermore, as 
in Ely, more or less detached the one 
from the other so as to allow for the 
apparent relative motion referred to. 
Buildings with groups of towers or 
spires or similarly strong features have 
this fortunate quality of variation of 
perspective. 

Durham and Lincoln have the advan- 
tage of naturally high situations, as 
each is set on a considerable hill. Ely’s 
location is not much more than one 
would describe as a hillock; but the 
mass of its building is almost more 
imposing than that of the other two. It 
can be seen from great distances and 
hence, being always kept in sight and 
other things being equal, it is likely to 
grow impressive In proportion as one 
approaches; then the effect is colossal. 

The cathedral has many striking 
features that assist in modelling a very 
fine sky-lime, an element of the utmost 
importance in any architectural com- 
position. And Ely is quite unlike any- 
thing else in this respect, for it has more 


than the canonical group of three towers 
100 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 47 


Amiens, France 1220-1260 


INTERIOR, LOOKING WEsT 


and a long line of building. Unusual 
features give the mass of the cathedral an 
unrivalled shape; they commence on the 
west with the superb tower of supreme 
stateliness, huge in dimensional effect, 
and by its easily apprehended parts has 
power to seize one’s imagination at first 
sight. It gains greatly in impressive- 
ness by an apparent stability given by 
the heavy south wing with the military 


turrets. The group is stunning and has 
IOI 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


been designed with a deliberate, sure, 
and experienced architectural pencil. 
(Figure 31.) The next great feature Is 
the ‘octagon’ and its lantern at the 
centre of the pile (as given in Figure 8), 
a most unusual and effective composition 
as well as a splendid pendent to the 
tower group at the west end of the 
church. The bold transept and the 
creat length are vital details of the 
outline. The unique central feature — 
the octagon and the lantern — 1s shown 
both in the general view of the cathedral 
in Figure 8 and in closer detail in Figure 
62. In the latter view the reader can 
also see the original north side of the 
church, as also the transept flanked by 
strong corner turrets. Beyond this is 
the lady chapel, attached to the transept. 
The picture also allows a study of the 
rich and excellent design of the octagon 
and the lantern over it. The large 
ornate pinnacles at the top of the former 
and at its many corners, and the rich 
arcade and parapet between them, 
strongly emphasize the effect of the 
main detail of the complete composition 
— the octagon — a matchless accent in 
a very original architectural device. 


The cathedral has massive propor- 
102 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 48 


Cologne, Germany 1248-1322 


INTERIOR, LOOKING EAstT 
Spires fmished 1883 


tions and great length and, in addition, 
has the advantage of appearing as 
actually very long. Refer again to 
Figure 31, which will also show the 
western tower and the walls of the nave 
at the clear-story level. The windows 
in both these sections of the wall are as 
their Norman builders left them, the 
mullions and tracery work being inserted 


at later dates. 
103 


THE: CATHEDRAL CHURCH “OFVENGUAR 


Figure 18 gives still another view of 
the western front and again shows how 
wonderfully effective and very unusual 
the tower is. The entrance to the cathe- 
dral is through a Galilee Porch, a build- 
ming of some size in front of the tower. 
Its sides are covered with four stages of 
blind arcading in the Early English 
style, very effective and very simple. 

Above the doorway is a group of three 
large lancet windows similar to the 
famous window in the cathedral’s east 
end. The doorway itself — the principal 
entrance into the building — is impres- 
sively fine and dignified and in some 
respects comparable to the western 
doorway of the cathedral of Lichfield, 
shown in Figure 29, but much less rich 
in design. At the extreme left of the 
illustration one can make out the old 
north walls. The wall of the transept is 
peculiarly plain. Above the roof the 
ornate lantern Is again to be seen and is 
valuable especially in this picture for 
the effect 1t has in accenting the per- 
spective. 

Returning to Figure 62, the almost 
detached square-looking structure with 
the large traceried window is the lady 
chapel. The usual place for chapels of 


104 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 49 
Canterbury 1070-1184 


Nave, Looxinc WEstr 
1379-1400 

this dedication, as we have before seen, 
is the extreme east end of the cathedral. 
Ely and Durham are exceptional in 
having them at different locations in the 
plan — Ely’s connected with the north 
transept, as above, and Durham’s, a 
Galilee Porch at the west end of the 
church. 

In general shape, the chapel has not 


much beauty —a plain rectangle; yet 
105 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


its design is original and it 1s richly 
decorated; the plain surfaces are covered 
with arcades and tabernacle work and 
wrought pedestals for saints who are 
absent. Its interior is most redundant 
in its sculptured, decorative treatment 
— undescribable without it before one’s 
eyes; the carving of the wall arcade 
elaborate in the extreme. It is a result 
following naturally from the material 
in which it is built —a soft material, 
chalk stone —that lends itself easily 
to a facile chisel, and architectural and 
sculptural forms present no difficulty m 
execution. The two large windows at 
either end of the room are filled with 
clear, uncolored glass and give a garish 
and inartistic effect to the interior. The 
years of its building were from 1321 to 
1340. 

The interior of the cathedral, inade- 
quately shown in Figure 42, Is an ex- 
traordinary composition — great length — 
— great richness — great dignity — un- 
usual features as effective as they are 
unusual — (such as the vaulting under 
the octagon at the crossing of the nave 
and transepts) — the ceiling of the nave 
— St. Catherine’s chapel, a wonderful 


chamber in almost pure Norman style. 
106 


PoesCATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 50 
Exeter 1279-I2y1 


INTERIOR OF CHoIR, LOOKING WEST 
1308-1369 
Remodelled in 1390 


The choir, in Figure 42, has an extremely 
ornate interior and was built in two 
periods of time with a break of more than 
a century between them, or about fifty 
years in all. 

The vaulting is of two classes — 
simple for several of the bays at the far 
east end, and rich and late between that 


point and the west end of the choir 
107 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


where it terminates under the famed oc- 
tagon. 

Figure 42 shows the nave as still 
retaining its original wooden ceiling. 
This portion of the fabric, therefore, 
was not vaulted in stone when the 
church was first built. It makes a very 
fine and artistic picture over the rood- 
screen and appearing just under the ribs 
of the octagon’s vaulting. Looking 
further into the eastern part of the 
church there is to be seen a window com- 
position than which there is nothing 
fmer m England (Figure 45), not 
excepting Carlisle (Figure 77). The 
latter is wonderfully rich in its tracery; 
the former is wonderfully simple, con- 
sisting of two tiers of perfectly plain 
lancet openings, three in the lower and 
frve in the upper, put together with a 
consummate artistic feeling. The win- 
dow is magnificent and has a thrilling 
dignity. Professor Freeman has said of 
it that “it is the grandest example of 
the grouping of Iancets.” It makes 
an extraordinary sight as one enters 
the cathedral at the far-away other 
end. The effect over the highly-wrought 
altar is superb, and no detail of it or 
about it disturbs the impressiveness. 

108 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 51 
Exeter 1279-1291 


CuHoir, Looxinc East 


1279-1291 
Remodelled — 1390 


The architectural treatment of the 
choir is elaborate, yet most excellent, 
and so are the ecclesiastical furnishings; 
but the change from richness of archi- 
tecture and altar and furnishings, to the 
dignified simplicity of the vast window 
and the equally simple vaulting over it, 
does not make one feel that there is any 
abruptness or a marked change, for it ts 
all on a very high plane of artistry. 


109 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


The most striking interior detail 1s the 
huge octagon at the crossing and its 
intricate vaulting. (Figure 47.) This 
was built after the collapse of the piers 
at the crossing of the nave and transepts. 
No attempt to rebuild the fallen piers 
was made; instead a novel and daring 
design was essayed — a great octagonal 
structure with a lantern above it — all 
carried by a vaulting ingeniously sup- 
ported (in principle) on the construc- 
tion that was undisturbed by the dis- 
aster. The device may be readily and 
intelligently studied and understood 
from the picture and, better, from the 
technical plan of the building. The net 
result of the method employed was that 
there was, practically, built in a Gothic 
cathedral a dome carried on a pen- 
dentive system — a system peculiar to 
the churches in the so-called classical 
style. The detail will surrender itself 
to a little critical study of the illustra- 
tion. As a whole it is a very magnifi- 
cent idea, grand in its conception, 
powerful in its effects, and well fitted to a 
church structure so notable for its other 
incomparable features. Unfortunately 
the construction is of wood, as Is also 
the lantern up to which it leads. The 


IIo 


TOE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


PIGUR Ee S2 
Winchester 1175-1184 


INTERIOR, LooKING East 
Choir rebuilt later. Nave, 1371-1460 


octagon was commenced nearly six 
hundred years ago. 
* *K * 

Peterborough cathedral (Figure 24), in 
Its way, is as remarkable a church as 
Ely. It has many outstanding features 
like the latter, but none of them 1m- 
presses one as do those of the other sanc- 
tuary; and further, there is not the 
unmistakable mark of gentus on Its 


composition that is everywhere visible at 
Teter 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


the shrine in the latter town. The 
fabric is very much extolled and 
defended, perhaps gratuitously, by those 
to whom it is of special interest; but the 
architectural critic may find abundant 
grounds for his rejoinders. The greater 
part of the building other than its front 
IS a very consistently complete Norman 
structure built between the years 1117 
and 1145, the front being constructed 
m another style in 1337. 

But when one has exhausted the study 
of the interesting architectural detail in 
itself and the local parts of the composi- 
tion and commences to view it as a 
whole conception as it now stands, 
both as an interior and an exterior, 
then one will find a number of facts 
connected with its design and artistic 
qualities that are not wholly satisfying 
and that one readily notices. It is nota 
compelling composition either for dignity 
or stateliness — in fact, it has none of 
the latter qualities. It has been said 
that much of the serious study that 
might be given to the building as a 
whole ts diverted to an undue admira- 
tion or querulousness about its amazing 
west front. Were it a complete and 


approximately coherent design, such 
TiZ 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 53 
Norwich 1096-1133 


INTERIOR OF Nave, LooKinG East 
Ceiling, 1172-1499 
comment could not have been justly 
made. 

The front, by itself, 1s looked at by the 
critics from points of view quite the 
opposite of one another. Fergusson 
writes — “It is the grandest front in 
Europe’; Freeman, “that it 1s old Greek 
translated into the finest English.” It 
appears to the writer, however, as a 
daring frontispiece designed wholly for 

113 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGEAND 


itself and then attached to a cathedral 
building as best it may be. It Is not a 
culmination of a design of, nor an 
architectural expression of, the structure 
whose front it is; it does not accord with 
the width of the nave, nor does Its outer - 
and cavernous vaulted recesses, of great 
proportional altitude, agree with or tell 
in any way of the building behind them 
or of any other of the great structural 
functions. It is not a preparation to the 
building whose chief expression it should 
be. It could be applied to any other 
ecclesiastical building of large dimen- 
sions. One writer, and he ts an eulogist, 
says — “that 1t — the recessed front — 
is.rather a’porch or a piagzan cue 
front.’ All this does not mean that the 
front 1s necessarily martistic but that it 
is scarcely in accordance with the canon 
of good architectural design. 

This elevation is freely admitted to be 
unusual and astonishing, and has 1m- 
mensity of effect; yet It is not supremely 
beautiful. It 1s a novel and elaborate 
essay in architecture, very fine as 
architecture whose attractiveness is to 
be found in striking originality and 
audacity. The fact that most mterests 
us here is that with the exception of the 

I14 ; 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 54 
Norwich 1096-1133 


Cuorr, Lookinc East 
1472-1499 
central porch and the spires surmounting 
the front, it 1s built in the best and 
purest Early English style of architec- 
ture, which style 1s the language of so 
many of the preéminently beautiful 
cathedral churches. 

There is a similarity of idea between 
the facades of Peterborough and Lincoln, 
the latter to be discussed later 1n these 
pages. Lincoln’s front is seen in Figure 

115 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


21. Both fronts are wide, screen-like 
compositions extending on each side 
beyond the lines of the respective build- 
ings and each having three great arched 
recesses. ‘That of Peterborough is more 
architectural and, compared with Lin- 
coln, has a firmer claim to real beauty. 
Incidentally there are three other cathe- 
drals with screen fronts — Salisbury, 
Wells, and, to a lesser degree, Exeter. 

The interior of the cathedral is 
impressive but with proportions — of 
width and length — without artistic 
refinement. 

The nave system of arches — the tri- 
fortum (unusually high) and the clear- 
story—is built in the truest Norman 
style in every detail. The lady chapel 
— here called the New Building or the 
Retro-choir — was commenced in 1430 
and completed in 1528. (Figure 63.) 
Its particular feature is its ceiling, built 
m fan-vaulting. This class of vaulting 
is wonderful from a technical point of 
view, both for its design and execution; 
and here with the ornate windows (Late 
Decorated) makes a fine room. Its 
proportions are unusual and far from 
ecclesiastical in effect. Peterborough 


retains Its original semicircular east end, 
116 . 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURES 55 


Beauvais, France 1337 


CHOIR 


but a study of it 1s only to be made from 
the exterior of the church; the lower 
part of the rounded plan is lost in the 
newer Retro-chotr. 

*k K * 

Figure 9 shows a great English church 
at Lincoln, commenced near the end 
of the twelfth century. It is another 
cathedral about which one may speak 
wingéd words — words, however, tem- 

aS hie 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


pered with some criticism. “It has 
erandeur of the whole, artistic refine- 
ment of its parts and as a complete 
exponent of English architecture through- 
out its greater period, it is a matchless 
example.” (Scott.) It has a wonderful 
dignity well becoming its fine situation. 
Its great form Is impressive to a degree, 
even when one is so far away that no 
detail can be distinguished other than 
the superb outlines and general mass, 
with the three towers dominating It; or 
when, from a nearer view-point, the 
several characteristic features and their 
own details begin to emerge into sight. 
Lincoln cannot fail to impress; it has 
too much of actual largeness and 
extent. It is on a very grandiose scale, 
is finely concetved and is plotted in a 
competent and well-ordered manner and 
with a keen sense of architectural 
climax. The figure will assist in the 
understanding of its general character as 
well as the greater and essential parts of 
the cathedral building. See plan, p. 181. 
It is true that its great front, shown in 
Figure 21, is subject to the same class of | 
critical examination as was given to 
Peterborough’s front. It may not have 
been designed and built, like the latter, 
118 ; 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 56 
York 1225-1407 


‘TRANSEPT, LookinGc Nortu 
1260 


as a whole and all at one time, and may 
not have been distinctly undertaken and 
intended as a frontispiece; but as it grew 
into a complete architectural feature 
such as it 1s, by the added and inten- 
tional work of many prelates, one after 
the other, it finally assumed the form 
we see and know and became an entity 
just as if so designed originally. The 
finished product 1s what one examines 
IIlgQ 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


critically and not the reasons by which it 
reached the better or worse result. 

Its character as a whole is evident 
from the illustration shown in Figure 9. 
Its front, like that of Peterborough, and 
all those cathedral churches with distinc- 
tively marked elevations that have 
been classed as frontispieces, is very 
much wider than the building back of it 
and does not respond to, nor explain the 
essential divisions of the latter and is so 
dissociated from it. Another question- 
able feature ts that it is built immediately 
in front of the fine pair of western 
towers and disturbs both the forceful- 
ness of what of them ts visible and their 
possible purpose as important elements 
of a sane design, as well as covering the 
gable construction which originally con- 
nected them with the old front. Finally, 
it does not consort happily with the 
architecture of the other portions of the 
fabric; that is, the elevation stands by 
itself, 

On the other hand, it is like Peter- 
borough’s front in that it is astonishingly 
original and imposing and has splendid 
architectural effect; 1t has the interest- 
ing difference that in it one may trace 
out the development of the composition 

I20 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 57 
Ely 1107-1133 


VAULTING OF THE OCTAGON 
1323-1362 


and the work of its many builders, from 
the oldest parts to the completed 
design. It ts also like Peterborough in 
the three huge recesses, those of Lincoln 
having the added interest that they 
form the only remaining parts of the 
first cathedral on the site. 

The three doorways piercing the wall 


in the Norman part of the front have 
I2I 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


been well described as “the most truly 
exquisite spectmens of the latest and 
most refined period of the Romanesque, 
just before its transition into the pointed 
style.” (Scott.) Their) rounds /arches 
are barely discernible in the picture. 
(Figure 21.) ~ The facade, if one may 
apply that architectural term to the 
front of a building in the English Pointed 
style, is finely terminated on either 
extreme by octagonal stair turrets with 
pyramidal stone roofs. Their design 
is most excellent. Taken all together 
the front is most interesting and withal 
has much dignity. 

Just as effectively and with great 
beauty and variety, but with little of 
the severity of its Norman forbears, does 
the cathedral let itself be seen in Fig- 
ure 65. The splendid east end with a 
wonderful window whose composition 
has the greatest architectural merit and 
charm, the individual chapter house and 
the top of the central tower, are the 
salient features of this illustration. One 
would be loath to believe that the artists 
who conceived this plan just happened 
upon an arrangement possessing such 
distinguished perspective value and that 
they did not foresee, as they wrought 


122 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 58 
Gloucester 1089-1100 


CEILING OF CHOIR 
aie i= SRN 


out its parts, that the final picture would 
be one of surpassing variety and beauty. 
How magnificently the central tower 
sets In Its place at the crossing of nave 
and transepts, and how itt reigns over the 
design, is well told in Figure 9; and 
Figure 32 shows it having the same 
dignity and regal poise and with an 
approach close enough to allow one to 


study the fine architectural details and 
123 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


their relations the one to the other. 
The tower rises from the roofs without 
uncertainty and with great majesty. 
On the first stage, included between the 
bases and the ridges of the roofs, and on 
the second, immediately above the 
latter [and here entirely encircling the 
tower] is a fie series of unpierced 
arches in simple moulded lancets. Then 
follows a panelled band and above this, 
on each of the four sides of the tower, a 
pair of lofty wmdows whose vertical 
members, elaborately decorated with 
crockets, carry rich canopied heads. 
The peaks of the heads terminate in 
the ornate parapet at the top of the 
composition. The architectural’ divi- 
sions just pointed out should be at- 
tentively studied. The windows are 
extremely beautiful. The corners of 
the tower are designed with fine turrets 
which will be seen to be very essential 
elements of the whole. The towers of 
Lincoln and of Canterbury should be 
studied together; both are superb ex- 
ponentsof a smmuilar architectural feature. 
Incidentally it may be of interest to 
know that Lincoln’s tower is nearly 
fifty-ftve feet square and has a height 
of two hundred and seventy-one feet. 
124 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 59 
Wells 10QQ-1115 


Lapy CHAPEL AND CHAPTER HouSE FROM THE 
NorRTHEAST 


1292-1319 


The technique of its construction 
is both unusual and clever. The 
record has it that instead of building 
one heavy and solid stone wall from the 
tops of the nave arches at the crossing, 
to the top of the tower, two thinner 
walls were constructed, well tied to- 
gether and with a considerable space 
between them; the result being a 


maximum stability with a minimum 
; 125 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


load on the arches. A _ very little 
figuring of the weight of the thicker 
wall will show how excellent was the 
device. 

Figure 64 shows in detail the chapter 
house whose general place in the com- 
position 1s given at the right-hand side 
of Figure 65, and® at the let@otsune 
cathedral in Figure 9, where its pomnted 
roof emerges above the house tops of 
the town. As originally built it did not 
have the outlying piers and _ flying- 
buttresses. They were added when the 
erection of the stone ceiling made a 
strain more than the walls were able to 
resist. The ceiling 1s actually of stone, 
not imitated in wood as at York, and so 
the buttresses have real work to do. It 
is a structure to be remarked, for It is 
very unusual in itself and 1s a most fie 
accent in the composition of the east end 
of the cathedral. The sveryaeetna 
windows are grouped in pairs of sharply 
pointed lancets and are not enclosed 
within the usual larger arch. The style 
of architecture is Early English. 

The interior of the cathedral (Figure 
37) isa view of the nave looking towards 
the entrance doorway on the west. It Is 


also in the same Early English style and 
126 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 60 
York 1225-1407 


East Enp 


Great Window, 1407. Chapter House, 1291-1345 
Central Tower, 1389-1407 


is one of the best examples of it we 
possess. The treatment is consistent 
throughout in walls as well as ceilings. 
The nave was completed in 1260. 
Quoting again from Mr. Scott, he says 
of the interior —‘“‘that it exhibits the 
Early English style in the highest stage 
of development . . . Its parts symmetri- 
cally proportioned and carefully studied 


. and there seems to be no deficiency 
127, 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


in any way to deteriorate from its 
merits.” 

The great window is effective and 
peculiarly well designed. Figure 38 
gives another picture looking towards 
the nave but this time through the choir, 
the point of view being taken immedi- 
ately back of the altar screen. The 
architectural treatment of the walls of 
the choir is more elaborate than in the 
nave; the vista to the further end of the 
church is splendid although not quite the 
equal of a similar view in Canterbury. 
(Figure 46.) 

From the same point, turning about, 
one sees the window at the rear of the 
presbytery — the extreme eastern end 
of this church. (Figure 76.) This portion 
of the cathedral is, perhaps, the most 
beautiful of any similar part in any 
other of the cathedrals of England. 
Lichfield is a strong competitor, but its 
character is wholly different. The 
window is magnificent and is wonderfully 
stately. In architectural style it may 
be claimed as being in the transition 
between the Early English and the 
Decorated styles, the style perhaps 
more precisely termed “Geometrical.” 


But whatever the name of its style, its 
128 | 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 61 
Lichfield 1200-1250 


Lapy CHAPEL, 1310 


beauty 1s wondrous. Its design is most 
simple and reserved, its proportions 
most perfect, the balancing of its parts 
most remarkable, and its details most 
beautiful. If the reader will go to Lin- 
coln and remain before this great glazed 
opening, reverently studying it, he will 
search for more adjectives with which 
to express his feelings. It is such beauty 
as this window shows that is able to 
explain much of the enthusiasm exhib- 
129 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


ited when England’s great cathedral pe- 
riod is described. 
* *K 

Lichfteld’s sanctuary is a small but a 
most lovely one. England has nothing 
else with which to compare it. It is not 
so massive a pile that it is inappropri- 
ate to speak of it as having “charm,” 
and this quality 1t does have to a re- 
markable degree. One’s first view of 
the building ts very likely to be the one 
presented in the figure — Figure 1o -— 
a view showing as fine a grouping of the 
parts of an architectural composition as 
one can find anywhere. ‘The dull red 
sandstone structure and the three beau- 
tiful spires rising out of the trees against 
the blue heavens and over the “cathe- 
dral pool,” make an enchanting picture. 
That the people of the town and adja- 
cent country to whom this sacred build- 
ing was a frequently recurring sight, 
should have regarded it affectionately, 
is no wonder, nor yet that familiarity 
with it should have earned for it the 
intimate name. of “The  Ladiesaeor 
the Vale.” Surely no Gone swheeheas 
seen the cathedral and its groupings 
and charming surroundings will read- 
ily forget the impression of a fine 

130 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 62 
Ely 1107-1133 


EXTERIOR OF OCTAGON AND LANTERN 
1323-1362 
Lady Chapel, 1321-1349 


architectural composition in a lovely 
setting. 

The cathedral has a very simple plan 
with a relatively long nave and choir — 
almost of the same length — and very 
short transepts, the latter set at about 
the middle of the church. The special 
features are few but distinctive, namely, 
the dignifted and richly vaulted chapter 

ew 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


house, the supremely artistic lady chapel, 
and the three impressive spires. The 
church is built, as has been stated, of 
dull red sandstone. 

We have no illustration in this series 
of the interior of the chapter house; its 
plan is a long octagon, vaulted in the 
richest manner, with many ribs span- 
ning from the outer wall to a very beau- 
tiful single clustered shaft at the centre 
of the room. It is a very striking in- 
terior. (See plan on p. 182.) 

The west front, Figure 26, is not large, 
but it 1s unique. Broadness for effect 
has not been essayed by making it wider 
than the church building, as was under- 
taken at Lincoln and Peterborough and 
elsewhere. Lichfteld’s front is no wider 
than the combined widths of the nave 
and the adjacent aisles of the church 
behind it, and it does not lose thereby 
any bigness in effect. It is correct in 
its architectural expression. It is an 
exceedingly rich elevation covered from 
bottom to top with arcades, panels, 
niches, and row upon row of sculptured 
kings and saints. The first row is at the 
lowest stage and between the entrance 
doors; another is immediately above 
and extending the complete width of 


132 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 63 
Peterborough III7—-I145 


THe REtTRo-CHOIR 


1438-1528 


the church, and these again are followed 
by two ranges above, broken into by 
the large window. They are continued 
on the sides of the towers and appear 
also above the doorway of the south 
transept. These ranks of figures must 
recall to the reader the fronts of two 
very famous French churches — one at 
Amiens, the other at Paris — where 
similar pageants of prelates and poten- 
133 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


tates are spread over them. Amiens Is 
shown in Figure 23. 

A very subtle and artistic feature of 
the design of the front of Lichfield is 
the octagonal turret completing the outer 
corner of each of the towers. They de- 
serve careful study. 

From the towers the spires rise out of 
a mass of pinnacles, and for several stages 
of their height have an ornate system 
of fenestration; above this, to the fintals, 
they are designed with a rich and ef- 
fective panelling. The central spire is 
apparently unornamented, save by the 
architectural divisions of the several 
ranges of unobtrusive windows. A 
closer examination will show that its 
raking angles are embellished by small 
crockets placed in a characteristic Eng- 
lish manner. The ensemble is superb. 

Only a fraction of the original exter- 
nal fabric is now visible, for by degrees 
it has been almost entirely restored, but 
with a restoration carried out with much 
painstaking adherence to former lines 
and details. As far as the writer can 
ascertain, only a very few parts have 
been subjected to any newer designing, 
so that the cathedral may be taken as 
appearing today as it did to the build- 

134 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 64 


Lincoln 1192-1200 


CHAPTER House 


ers who completed it in the thirteenth 
century. 

There are three entrances on the west 
front (Figure 26), the lateral one deeply 
recessed, very rich in jamb shafts and 
arch moulds, the latter elaborately deco- 
rated with foliage. The central door- 
way is most beautiful — unquestionably 
the most beautiful ecclesiastical door- 
way in the country. (Figure 29.) It is 
peculiarly rich in treatment, abundant 
in imagination, fine in proportion and 

135 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


balance, and exhibits genuine artistic 
sense. The cusping on the arch is both 
very effect ve and very bold. The fig- 
ure sculpture is rich and well placed. 
The foliage deeply wrought on the mner 
arch, and the outer band modelled in a 
series of consecutive tabernacles and 
figures, is design and execution of the 
first order. England offers another de- 
sign as a companion to the doorway of 
Lichfield — the entrance to the Galilee 
of the cathedral of Ely, and which has 
already been noticed. (Figure 18.) 

A comparative study of the two en- 
trances is well worth while. The door- 
way of Ely has marked simplicity and 
commanding dignity and is wholly an 
architectural design, fine in its concep- 
tion. Lichfield’s doorway is sculptural as 
well as architectural, and for pure ar- 
tistry is an unsurpassable composition. 
The two might be further defined — the 
one as classic and self-contained, the 
other as romantic — an ordered exuber- 
ance. Ely is strictly English; Lich- 
field suggests the richer character that 
might have been induced by influences 
from across the channel, and its date of 
1276 would not forbid such a sugges- 


tion. 
136 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 65 


Lincoln 1192-1200 


East ENp OF THE CATHEDRAL 
East Window, 1260-1280. Central Tower Finished 


ney ai 
_ The interior is shown in Figure 39 
and looks toward the sanctuary end of 
the church, with the wondrously artistic 
windows of the lady chapel and the high 
altar in the distance. The unusual ef- 
fect of a church with a dark east end, 
rather than one radiantly bright as at 
Lincoln or York, is a novelty in cathe- 
dral design; the emphasis to the win- 
dow system is most telling. 

This mterior is extremely beautiful 

and has conspicuous unity. In archi- 

137 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


tectural notation it is in the style of 
the transition between the Early Eng- 
lish and the Decorated styles, a period 
that our studies have shown produced 
the most attractive, individual and nor- 
mal of the truly English designs. The 
choir was commenced at the beginning 
of the thirteenth century. The ceiling 
is direct, easily understandable, and at 
the same time has great richness. The 
lady chapel is not in a building attached 
to the cathedral, after the usual manner, 
but opens out of the beauteous presby- 
tery as the chief glory of the church 
and of this view. The complete interior 
of the lovely chapel with its octagonal 
end is shown in Figure 61. Its beauty 
and artistry are without flaw. The 
dark stone makes a background that 
helps to define, by contrast, the bright- 
ness and beauty of the fine glass and 
the exquisite tracery of the nine tall 
windows that give light and distinction 
to the unusually conceived feature. 
Just as effective and rich is the arcade 
that goes around the wall under the 
windows, In a series of decorative cano- 
pies. The parapet above these is fine 
in its relative scale, and the manner in 


which the designer has tied together the 
138 


moe CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 66 
Salisbury 1220-1258 


CHAPTER House, 1263-1284 
Spire, 1331 


arcade and the window system, by the 
tabernacled-niche built above the former 
on each of the piers between the win- 
dows, is most able and worthy of praise. 
The chapel in its entirety makes on the 
visitor the impression of stately mag- 


nificence. 
Keke ok 


Salisbury is usually accorded a place 
as one of the great cathedrals of Eng- 
139 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


land. One of the particular claims for 
the place is, that it was, with very few 
exceptions, built consistently in a rela- 
tively short period and in one archi- 
tectural style throughout — the Early 
English. The exceptions are, the upper 
portion of the tower, the spire, and the 
cloisters. These are, however, so well 
merged into the design of the fabric 
that the differences of style are scarcely 
apparent to the layman without a pre- 
vious knowledge and searching. 

The church was built in the years 
from 1220 to 1258. (Figure 11.). It is 
most excellent in ts strict architecture 
of a version of a style; this is quite per- 
fect. Its conception In a particular 
method of architectural expression has 
been carried out relentlessly to a logical 
conclusion; but it fails markedly m a 
personal element. The structure has 
poise, but lacks virility. It derives its 
chief attractiveness from its varied ex- 
terior. Its plan-form gave the promise 
of a very fine perspective; its execution 
redeemed it. The bold double tran- 
septs have a leading value. Over the 
junction of the nave with the larger of 
the transepts stands the mighty spire, 
four hundred and four feet high. In 


140 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 67 
Canterbury 1175-1184 


CLOISTERS AND LIBRARY, 1397-1412 


Very much altered in XVth Century 


the figure, the grouping of the parts of 
the building shows much distinction. 
One can trace the entire church building 
from the east end to the finials of the 
front just appearing over the chapter 
house and get the notion of its length 
(473 feet). One can see also the upper 
part of the building and the two tran- 
septs, and can decipher much of the 
architectural detail of the walls. 
I4I 


THE’ CATHEDRAE CHURCH OF- ENCLAR 


The tower — that is, the construction 
up to the beginning of the spire — Is 
not as compelling a composition as Is 
the tower of Lincoln (Figure 32), and 
although ornate does not develop so 
splendidly from the roof to its summit. 
(Put a card over the spire in Figure 11, 
and then compare its tower with that of 
Lincoln shown in Figure 32.) 

The tower and. spire together, how- 
ever, Is certainly one of the finest com- 
positions in Europe. Compare it if you 
will with the central spire of the cathe- 
dral at Rouen—of about the same 
height. Salisbury’s great central feature 
is Surpassing in its stateliness and 1s im- 
posing by its great height. Both tower 
and spire were added to the church 
about the year 1300 and are in the days 
of the early Decorated work. The win- 
dow system, the same on the four faces 
of the tower, is a group of four similar 
openings with canopied arches in two 
stages, identical in design and apparent 
dimension. ‘The spire is most graceful, 
has very subtle beauty, and rises out of 
the tower in a matchless manner and 
with great dignity. 

The interior of the cathedral (Figure 
40) does not elicit any enthusiasm; it 

142 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 68 
Salisbury 1220-1258 


EXTERIOR OF CLOISTERS, 1263-1264 
Spire, 1331 


is frigid, precise, commits no outstand- 
ing vagaries, is apparently correct in 
design and architecturally, as it should 
be. Why it should not be able to claim 
applauding attention may be difficult 
both to understand and to explain. It 
has length, good vaulting, consistent 
treatment, good proportions; but it has 
neither variety nor vigor. How far this 
may be due, at least in part, to the ar- 
143 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


chitectural treatment of a primary and 
important detail in the design of the 
nave, and which is unescapable and in- 
terferes with the largeness of effect, is 
open to discussion. Certainly the great 
piers lose by being surrounded by four 
dark, slim, polished, and prominent 
shafts, one on each face of the piers, 
with which they do not blend; they 
belittle and disturb the unity of a major 
detail whose function is of the first im- 
portance. 

Perhaps this can best be explained by 
looking at a pier, similar in all respects, 
as far as plan is concerned, used in the 
mterior of the cathedral at Amiens. 
(Figure 47.) The method of relative de- 
tailmg is different and the pier gains 
great richness and stability because of 
the attached shafts. The whole is ap- 
parently one conception and the total 
effect extremely fine. The opposite in 
artistic method and effect is shown at 
Salisbury, where the design is distinctly 
and disturbingly separated into its com- 
ponent parts. (Compare the two piers 
as shown respectively in Figures 40 
and: 47.) 

A further questionable detail is that 
the wall immediately above the nave 

144 : 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 69 


Salisbury 1220-1258 


INTERIOR OF CLOISTERS, 
1263-1264 


arches is wholly and markedly plain, 
the continuous horizontal moulding 
course at the top of it serving to make 
it more so; the moulding cuts the nave 
abruptly from the triforrum. Still fur- 
ther, there is a lack of a vistble connec- 
tion between these tmportant divisions 
of the nave wall; the shafts that are so 
commonly seen commencing at the piers, 
or just above them on the nave walls 
and running up through the triforrum 
145 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


to the actual ribs of the stone ceiling, 
are absent. The effect of these two 
features together is to break the sense 
of cohesion in the parts of the wall and 
give the appearance rather of a series of 
architectural stories or ‘ayers than an 
organic whole; there is no architectonic 
connection between the several divi- 
sions of the walls as noted above, and 
which is so easily recognizable and is so 
vatuable an artistic device of design in 
Durham (Figure 36), Lincoln (Figure 
37), Ely (Figure 45), or in Winchester 
(Fig. 52), where the connection is 
matchlessly perfect. In addition the 
shafts at the piers under the triforium 
arches in Salisbury are of the same order 
for size and color as those attached to 
the piers of the nave, and are also in 
groups of many relatively short columns. 
It is easily seen that this arrangement 
of details can give no visual and verti- 
cal connection of idea between the two 
major divis ons of the wall. The tri- 
fortum is therefore detached and intro- 
duces a difference in architectural scale 
and parts, an always perilous happen- 
ing in design. (The groups of triforrum 
columns to which reference has been 


made, may be seen at the upper right- 
146 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


hand side of the illustration.) For a 
great cathedral church such a confusion 
of relative details is incomprehensible, 
and the result is that the building must 
fall to the level of ordinary design. 
Mayhap the total effect was different 
before the freaks of alteration and in- 
novation and whitewash were perpe- 
trated in the latter part of the eight- 
eenth century, and when applied color 
was a large item in the presentation of 
the building’s interior and could make 
up, to some degree, in decorative treat- 
ment what might have been lacking in 
architectural thinking. But what we 
see today ts to be seen in the structure 
as above described, and affects, and 
must affect,one’s present-day judgments. 

Salisbury’s front might be called a 
very distinct architectural frontispiece. 
(Figure 22.) It was designed for itself 
and in no functional relation to the 
building as a whole. 

It, like Lichfield, ts enriched over its 
entire surface, but in a very unregulated 
manner. Arcades, band courses, rows 
of niches, window forms without win- 
dows, are applied with a lavish hand 
and with no great respect for archi- 
tectural centres or lines or canon. They 

147 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


keep on to the extreme edges of the 
building and there, without preparation 
or consideration of the angle, turn and 
continue for some distance on the side 
walls. The architectural principle of a 
competent framing for a design is ab- 
sent; the outlines taken vertically at 
the corners are ragged because they 
cut through the deep reliefs of the 
ornaments and the projecting mould- 
ings of the arches and other members. 
Therefore marked indentations are left. 
The controlling detail of the design 
as a whole is curiously not the small 
square angle towers or turrets at the 
extremities of the elevation, important 
as they seem to be, nor any other of 
the surface features, but the central 
piers of the great window. 

Without their well-defined vertical 
lines the front would, artistically, go to 
pieces. The triple window, while con- 
sisting of three huge plain lancets, Is 
not important enough for the front. 
Some and more than usual emphasis is 
given to the doorways, for they are de- 
signed as parts of a separate composi- 
tion; yet they are still insignificant — 
are still doors and not portals. 


The front in its entirety, however, ts 
148 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 70 
Gloucester 1089-1100 


INTERIOR OF CLOISTERS, 
1375-1412 


commanding as well as peculiar and 
wholly mdividual. Compare Salisbury 
with the front of the French Amiens 
(Figure 23), a cathedral built from 1220 
to 1280 — that is, in almost the same 
years that saw the erection of Salisbury. 
Study both the outlines of the two 
buildings and the two porch systems. 
Amiens 1s a mass of well-placed niches 
and arches, rich sculpture, and lovely 
tracery. Such exuberant design, such 
unlimited richness and romantic fancy, 
149 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF "ENGLAND 


was never dreamed of in England, at 
least not at Salisbury. The towers here 
are pronounced frames and accents of 
the front; they do not extend much 
above the building, but one’s eyes hardly 
get up so high. No porches like these 
were ever attempted by the British ar- 
chitects. They are, in France, the func- 
tion-in-chief of the design; Salisbury’s 
triple entrance Is a conspicuously trivial 
thing in comparison. Amiens Is an en- 
trancingly rich and highly artistic front, 
the extreme of decoration and fime archi- 
tecture. Yet England’s churches, m 
their greater directness and simplicity, 
no matter how one may criticise and 
compare them with others, are like mem- 
bers of one’s own family — they are a 
delight one can keep as companions far 
longer than the brilliant Gallic master- 
pieces, beautiful and wonderful as they 
are. 

The view of Salisbury shown in Fig- 
ure 33 has a genuine architectural value. 
It 1s extremely instructive and interest- 
ing to work out the parts of the design 
as it develops from the lady chapel (at 
the left) through the attractively studied 
gables set over the ends of the choir 


aisles, making a step in the architecture 
150 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 71 


Belem, Portugal Ca as 


INTERIOR OF CLOISTERS AT BATALHA 


between the chapel and the actual east 
end of the church; then the massing up 
of the fabric into the choir, followed by 
the two transepts, the design completed 
and finished by the tower and its won- 
derful roof of stone. Yet in one respect 
the illustration is less interesting than 
the one given in Figure 11. Compare 
them. In this one — the north side of 
the church — the walls rise sheer out of 
the ground, like cliffs; in the other there 
is a splendid preparation for the coming 
of the dominant detail — the spire — in 
151 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


the many divisions and parts of the 
building itself — the chapter house and 
the fine trees. Figure 33 18 sOhupars 
ticular service to the student of archi- 
tectural design. Study also the plan on 
page 183. 

Another attractive view is in Figure 
66 and in which the several parts of the 
structure, as well as the chapter house, 
are shown. Compare this figure with 
the chapter house of Lincoln shown in 
Figure 64. You will observe that its 
roof is flat and so invisible, and that the 
walls are finished with a continuous 
parapet — a bit ordinary — and further 
that the windows are similar to those in 
the cloister (see Figure 68), but with 
better proportion. Lincoln’s chapter 
house ts less elegant but much the more 
virile. 

Figure 68 shows the exterior of the 
cloisters and another lovely grouping of 
the elements of the building into a very 
perfect picture. Many of the archi- 
tectural details may beseen. The clois- 
tered arcade is rich and attractive, al- 
though its tracery 1s somwhat crafts- 
manlike and stiff. The columns are ap- 
parently too delicate for the large-scaled 


tracery they have to carry and the 
152 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 72 
Valladolid, Spain c. 1580 


CLOISTERS OF THE CHURCH OF St. GREGORY 


cusped circle in the head of the com- 
partment is rather heavy. Criticism of 
details, however, does not detract from 
the general beauty of the composition — 
a typical sheltered walk belonging to 
the sometime monastery — exquisite in 
its detail and a fine adjunct to the pic- 
ture. 

The interior of the cloister is a rest- 
ful-looking simple place with attractive 
variation of light and perspective. (Fig- 
ure 69.) It is, like the other cloisters 
that have been referred to, wholly 

153 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


English. Their art is as fine as their 
sentiment and imagination. The sun- 
light, the open arcading filled with 
beautiful tracery, the vaulted ceilings 
and long vistas, are parts of memorable 
pictures. 

* *K * 

Wells cathedral dates from about the 
years 1174 to 1206. (Figure 1g.) It is 
another in the class of ‘frontispiece’ 
churches whose chief attractiveness is 
in the massive dimensions, architecture 
and breadth. You will notice that the 
last is attained by placing the pair of 
western towers beyond the north and 
south lines of the building’s main walls. 
(See the north tower of the front as 
shown in Figure 59. A plan of this build- 
ing would materially help in its study. 
One is given on page 180.) 

The catalogue of the cathedrals with 
the screen or sham fronts names five 
examples out of the fifteen we have 
looked at in these pages; and when one 
considers how very fine seven of the 
true-fronted buildings are, one wonders 
why the designers of the former sought 
for strange models with worse results. 
It is further to be remarked that all 
the members of the frontispiece group, 

154 3 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 73 
San Paolo, Rome, Italy Founded 324 


CLOISTERS 
Burned in 1823 and rebuilt 
Cloister almost as originally built 


with two exceptions, were built subse- 
quent in date to the buildings of the 
more normal or really English type; the 
exceptions are Lincoln and by a small 
margin, Salisbury. That is, it would 
seem that the designers had tired of 
their older models and had started out 
after the astonishing, the more or less 
bizarre, and for design for itself 
155 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


(after the manner of ultra-modern com- 
position in music) — always so danger- 
ous, if not fatal, for any real and beau- 
-tiful art work. 

The front in this picture, at least the 
view most usually published, blocks 
any intelligent understanding of the 
building as a whole and only gives the 
merest glimpse of the central tower. 
The view from the other end of the 
church (Figure 49) 1s also unappealing 
and does not show the church to ad- 
vantage. It does give very well the 
relative detachment of the northern of 
the two front towers beyond the build- 
ing as well as the chapter house in the 
foreground. As architecture it is im 
very beautiful English work and some 
of the details and combinations are very 
charming. Returning to the west front 
in Figure 19, the marked characteristics 
are seen to be, stx ponderous and ornate 
buttresses — the panelling between 
which simulates the triple window — 
the elaborate and rich architectural de- 
tail covering the entire facade, the ap- 
parently unfinished towers, and the 
remarkably little doors. 

We have called attention —sin the 


case of Salisbury cathedral—to the 
156 


TH CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 74 


Amiens, France 1218-1260 


Cuerir STALLS 
15408-1521 


difference between the English entrance 
doorways and those of the French 
cathedrals, and the elevation of Amiens 
was cited as the example in comparison. 
With those of the cathedral at Wells, 
compare the entrances of the church at 
Bourges, also in France, and whose 
probable date is 1275. (Figure 20.) The 
doors at Wells were erected about fifty 
years earlier. Those of Bourges are 
magnificent portals of wondrous effect 
157 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


through which to go up into the sanctu- 
ary. It 1s not easy to understand why 
some approach to a design of such 
telling quality was impossible to the 
spirit of the English fronts. At any 
rate, none of them has much more than 
insignificant and humble dimensions of 
doors like Wells. The entrances to 
Lichfield and Ely might be made ex- 
ceptions, not because of relative size 
but only because of their actual beauty 
and worthiness. 
* * Ck 

York (Figure 12), a thirteenth century 
erection, Is a very well-known and an 
important cathedral. It is the seat of 
an archbishop and ts second in ecclesi- 
astical dignity only to that of the arch- 
bishop at Canterbury. But it is only 
its size, its general and indisputable 
magnificence, Its political connections, 
and some outstanding architectural de- 
tails that give it place among the notable 
church buildings of England. 

Its praise has been sung —in both 
modes. Of all the English churches, 
not excepting those which have forsaken 
the best tradition of English cathedral 
design, it holds the least power to arouse 


enthusiasm in an amateur of architec- 
158 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 75 
Exeter 1279-1291 


Cuotr STALLS 
Cc. 1300 


ture. That it is an impressive, even a 
striking, composition, both as an ex- 
terior and as an interior, cannot be 
questioned. It may be all this and still 
fail quite signally as an exponent of 
compelling architectural art whose very 
flaws and imperfections are not detri- 
mental to its entire expression. It has 
been very variously esteemed, some- 
times favorably but more often the 
159 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


contrary. It has an air of masculine 
and stately repose shown most admir- 
ably in Figure 12, where the vact bulk 
of the minster and its fine grouping of 
towers appear above the roofs of the 
town’s houses. There are cathedrals 
more finely placed, several richer in or- 
nament, a few more delicately varied in 
outline, but there is none more digni- 
fied and magnificent. Figure 12 gives a 
specially attractive ensemble of a large 
English town and its cathedral church. 
Compare it with a similar view of 
Amiens in Figure 13, and you will 
emphasize the relation of a cathedral to 
its surrounding city. York is beautiful 
and paternal; Amiens, commanding and 
sovereign. York’s cathedral belongs to 
its town; Amiens, to its cathedral. And 
you will recognize that the feeling ex- 
pressed by the French church ts barren. 

The west front of York (Figure 24) 
shows its best points and also some of 
its defects. It is richly ornamented 
and also very dignified. Its architec- 
tural parts are balanced, the relative 
proportions of its three towers very good, 
the effect being much enhanced by the © 
greater mass and simplicity of the 


central one. But it fails to appeal 
160 s 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


; FIGURE 76 
Lincoln 1172-1200 


East WInpDow —1N ANGEL CHOIR 
1260-1280 


with an inevitable sense of completeness 
as does, say, Canterbury. One ex- 
amines it in detail and commences to 
discover, without any undue criticism, 
elements of design that may be ques- 
tioned not because of themselves but 
because of their effect on the entire 
composition. The buttresses are very 
huge and splendid, but their size and 


splendor give the great window — the 
161 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


most important feature of the front — 
a crowded appearance and a secondary 
prominence, and there seems to be 
scanty room for it to develop itself as 
it should; or, in other words, it soon im- 
presses one as being too large for its 
position, which is not really the case. 
The windows in the towers are also ap- 
parently too large for their office and 
take from the sense of solidity some- 
thing that should be pronounced in such 
an important feature as a tower In an 
architectural design. More disturbing 
still is the over-largeness chargeable to 
the windows in the upper stages of the 
western towers. They are designed as 
large single openings. Had these win- 
dows been drawn after a pattern similar 
to those that grace the central tower at 
Lincoln — a pair of equally 1mportant 
and high openings — the effect would 
have been powerfully fine, both for 
themselves and for the edifice. 

An architectural critic writes about 
the front — “‘it is richly decorated and 
well-proportioned in the mass, but it Is 
curiously ineffective when height and 
breadth and its regular outlmes are con- 
sidered.”’ He continues in another place 


—‘“‘the English architects have en- 
162 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


FIGURE 77 
Carlisle 1250~1400 


East WINDow, 1292 
r20°X,51) 


deavored to rival the French on their 
own ground and have not succeeded. 
. . . Boldness and strength are alto- 
gether wanting. All Norman and earlier 
English Gothic work has this great 
merit — that the design seems to em- 
phasize and be dictated by the materials 
im which it is carried out. The Norman 
architect never forgot for a moment 
— and he was not skilful enough to for- 


get — that he was building with stone. 
. 163 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


So he did not conceive his front as a 
flat surface to be ornamented but as a 
solid wall to be built, and naturally his 
ornament followed and emphasized the 
main lines of his building. ... But 
as masons grew more skilful and de- 
signers more sophisticated, they found 
it pleasant to play with their material. 
The result is often beautiful. The 
method gave the freest play to the 
artist’s invention, but it had its dangers, 
and they are exemplified at York. 
There the designer regarded his west 
front as a large space to be played with 
and in his anxiety to decorate it richly, 
he lost his sense of unity and proportion. 
He has forgotten to use his ornament 
merely to emphasize the main lines of 
the structure. At York the main lines 
are neglected. And yet there is much 
to be said on the other side. The mere 
size — the height and width — go far to 
make the front impressive; and the de- 
tail, even now when so much of it has 
been restored, is usually beautiful. If 
it Is not great architecture it is at least 
living architecture.” 

One of the details that disturbs the 
architectural expression is to be found 


in the technique of design and is neither 
164 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


difficult to explain nor hard to under- 
stand. To a general observer it may 
not seem to amount to much; it is like 
well-chosen words in a discourse or a 
writing and therefore has a place of im- 
portance in the ensemble: It is to be 
found in the unusual acuteness of the 
arches over the openings and is es- 
pecially noticeable in those of the win- 
dows. They are sharper than what is 
almost universal in the Early English 
style in its best period. It is readily 
seen by carefully looking at the large 
west window of York — shown in Fig- 
ure 44 — at the end of the nave of the 
cathedral and then making a comparison 
with similar windows in Lincoln ca- 
thedral (Figure 37), Durham cathedral 
(Figure 36), or Canterbury cathedral 
(Figure 49). After studying these three 
pictures return to that of York, when the 
difference will become very apparent 
and the criticism sustained. 

The interior looking toward the east 
(Figure 41), and showing the choir and 
the lady chapel back of it, will be al- 
lowed to make its own story both for 
Its architecture and its artistry. The 
proportions are somewhat low, the win- 


dow vast — claimed to be the largest 
165 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


glazed window surface in England (32 
feet by 78 feet). It is a huge screen of 
uninspired composition filled with glass 
not effectively rich. The ceiling of the 
choir is complex. The interior toward 
the west (Figure 44), in the way it 
makes clear the architectural parts and 
divisions of the nave walls, is more 
emphatic than most of the other illus- 
trations adduced to show them and 
surely helps to a better understanding 
of their relation to one another and to 
the design as a whole, if any further 
testimony on this point were needed. 

The most salient feature of this in- 
terior is the clearness by which it 
shows that its elements, in their varied 
forms and relations, have been designed 
for their part in the system of a building 
with a vaulted ceiling, to be built m 
stone; that is, they were devised for a 
special work to be done. But there is 
no stone vaulting; the ceiling is wholly 
of wood and colored to imitate masonry. 
The effect of form and perspective Is 
fine and has all the value of a real 
stonework, but architecturally it is un- 
moral. 

Of the view across the transept in 
Figure 56 there is no criticism; It Is 

166 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


oy FIGURE 78 
Winchester 1076-1093 


THe REREDOS 
Early XVth Century 


impressive and of great dignity. The 
composition with its five tall perfectly 
plain lancet windows with another group 
of frve smaller ones above, the latter 
disposed to fit the ceiling, is wonderfully 
fme design and has marked power. The 
openings are the simplest form of the 
unembellished pointed arch. The pic- 
ture also shows other details of much 
Interest to the student, such as the 


grouped shafts and their sculptured 
167 


THE CATHEDRAL ‘CHURCH OF ENGIAN® 


capitals, the mouldings of the arches, 
and the enriched corbels. 

The last picture of York (Figure 60) 
shows the exterior of the east end of the 
cathedral and includes in it the great 
window of the lady chapel, the chap- 
ter house, anda fine view of the central 
tower. A view of the window from the 
interior of the church is to be found in 
Figure 41. It may be wietedstnata ae 
sharply pomted roof of the chapter 
house covers another instance this 
cathedral has to offer of a vaulted ceil- 
ing of wood masquerading in the form 
of stone. The picture shows a total of 
much richness of detail, but detail with- 
out Inspiration —1s craftsmanlike and 
affects the visitor by its flatness, big- 
ness, ornateness, and by its most patent 
attribute — artificiality — rather than 
being the supremely artistic ensemble 
that the varied parts, their dimensions 
and relative positions, could have made 
of it. 

* K 

The cathedral church at Exeter, the 
detail of whose front 1s shown in Figure 
27, has a very few features In common 
with the cathedrals we have already 


studied; the most conspicuous of these 
168 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


are the large window and the small 
doors. The church was one of the 
latest in the series of great buildings, its 
dates placing it between the earlier part 
of the thirteenth and the middle of the 
fourteenth centuries. There had been a 
Saxon church on the site for seventy 
years when the new building was be- 
gun and worked at for nearly a century. 
The present fabric belongs chiefly to 
the first years of the fourteenth cen- 
tury and has been added to and altered 
in the customary manner. One writer 
comments that “it grew up after one 
pattern but with certain advances as 
the work went westwards.” (It is to 
be noted that the cathedral structures 
were always commenced at the east or 
altar end.) 

The gradual execution of Exeter, by 
always adhering to the original plan, has 
resulted in a more than usually unifted 
whole. Its low effect is made the more 
noticeable by the position of the towers 
at the transepts — in fact, they are the 
transepts — rather than at the western 
end of the building. The front loses 
impressiveness by the arrangement and 
becomes the more or less insignificant, 


but the whole composition gains im- 
169 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


mensely in variety and picturesqueness 
of effect. The last-named characteris- 
tics are very much enhanced by the 
strongly projecting buttress system, 
made up of features with an unusual 
sense of detachment and hence very 
noticeable and important. (Figure 34.) 

The front (Figure 27) is rich in elabo- 
ration rather than in design and is re- 
plete with figure sculpture and archi- 
tectural detail; furthermore it is peculiar 
in being built in three receding planes, 
the first at the ground level — the porch 
screen proper in which the relatively 
very small entrance doors are placed; 
the second, set back of this, ts the real 
west front wall of the church and natu- 
rally carries the great and beautiful 
window. The third plane is at the 
top of the front and includes the finish- 
ing gable and the triangular window 
pierced in it. It is, as one will perceive, 
a very uncommon and original device 
for a cathedral front. It is, however, to 
be remarked that in proportion as an 
original design is good in its arrange- 
ment and the balance of its parts, and 
there 1s also excellence in the relation 
of the parts the one to the other and 


the whole is more or less actually 
170 


Pesca tiEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


beautiful in itself and correct in archi- 
tectural expression, such a composition 
is a real contribution to architectural 
art. Exeter’s front answers this deftni- 
tion and can therefore be classed as a 
conception worthy of serious study. It 
is most admirable as well as novel. 
When the cathedral is seen from a 
point of view that includes the three 
planes of the front, the buttresses and 
the transeptal towers, the picture 1s 
architecturally satisfyimg in the ex- 
treme. The towers are most interesting 
features, substantial, architectural, and, 
as stated before, In an uncommon po- 
sition. Their surfaces show the modrI- 
fications they have undergone since the 
Norman builders first began their work 
on them. Up to the middle of their 
height they are plain and more like con- 
structions belonging to a castle than to 
a place of worship. Above this level 
there are arches, openings, parapets, and 
Commer = LuUIreLS, Cvery: one of them 
straightforward in detail. 

The position of the towers occupying 
the entire transepts of the church, has 
a novel effect on the interior. As there 
was no central tower, no construction 
was needed or had to be prepared to 

I7I 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


carry it, and hence there was no visible 
‘crossing’ or ‘lantern’ and the ceiling 
was free to go in one unbroken and con- 
tinuous sweep the whole length of the 
building. Of this some idea will be ob- 
tained from Figure 40. 

Two views of the interior — Figure 
50, looking towards the nave through 
the choir, and Figure 51, the choir it- 
self — will show what a peculiarly lovely 
interior Exeter has. Arcading, rich 
clustered shafts, elaborate sculpture and 
a beautiful west window, are some of 
the outstanding attributes. It is unfor- 
tunate, however, to have to record that 
the groined ceiling, so beautiful and 
dignified in its lines, is a wooden com- 
position just as is the ceiling of the 
cathedral of York and the Octagon of 
Ely. In spite of this disappointment 
Exeter’s church is a most fascinating 
sanctuary; and when the sun plays 
through the clear-story windows and 
models its light on the stonework, has a 
most remarkable and memorable charm. 

Figure 75 is a view of the choir and 
shows its architecture and rich furnish- 
ings and the very unusual rood-screen. 
The last consists of three low open 


arches most elaborately sculptured; 
172 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


above them is placed the somewhat ob- 
trusive organ. This picture also well 
exhibits the vertical divisions of the 
nave wall — nave arches, triforium, and 
clear-story — so many times referred to. 

Just for a moment tarry while you 
compare these chofr stalls of Figure 75 
with those of that great French fane at 
Amiens and shown in Figure 74. The 
latter are accredited as being the most 
exuberantly and artistically wrought 
wooden stalls in the Pointed style, 
either of England or France. Beautiful 
as are these Gallic “‘seats of the godly’”’ 


the English example does not lag far 
behind. 

* *K 

The details of two east ends finish 

our study; both have been referred to 
before. They form a happy ending to 
the illustrations of a lovely architecture. 
The first is the wonderful stone-traceried 
window in the cathedral church at 
Carlisle, than which no window could 
well be more beautiful, very perfect in 
design and filled with fine glass. The 
second 1s the still more wonderful rere- 
dos of the altar in the cathedral church 
of Winchester, exultingly rich in archi- 
tectural form and figure sculpture. 

173 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


They are shown in Figures 77 and 78, 


respectively. 
* *K 


There is a group of about ten cathedral 
churches founded in the great thirteenth 
century that have not been included 
in the illustrations of this book nor in 
the critical examinations. None of 
them, save perhaps Westminster Abbey 
and Worcester cathedral, could be 
classed among the distinctively notable 
buildings that have been the theme of 
this writing, either by dimension or de- 
sign, neither would they have added 
to the completeness of the record or to 
a better understanding of the wonder- 
ful ecclesiastical edifices.* 

The constant allusion to the years 
and centuries of the commencement or 
the erection of the several cathedrals is 
to keep the attention ‘of themmeaacs 
fixed on the periods of time in their re- 
lation to those years which marked and 
included the highest achievements of 
Gothic architecture in England. The 


* The names of these cathedrals are: 


Rochester, 1209-1239  Southweil, 1233-1204 
Worcester, 1203-1218 Westminster, 1245-1269 
Chichester, 1204-1244 Chester 1093-1283 
Elgin, 1224-1244 Oxford, 1233-1204 
Ripon, 1233-1294 _ Bristol, 1292-1460 


174 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


knowledge is essential for the proper 

understanding of the development of 

the series of the great English churches. 
* KK 

The story of the cathedrals is only 
less vitally teresting than the privilege 
of actually seeing them and walking 
within their precincts — and this is a 
very happy experience indeed. 

It 1s easy to look about one and, as a 
critic and with the pride of later-cen- 
tury experience and technique, write 
as to what might have been the better 
for the design or how difficulties could 
have been avoided by this or another 
treatment or method of procedure; but 
even an imperfect study of the series 
of structures makes one put aside the 
criticism — even should it tend to arise 
—and marvel at the originality, the 
daring, the masterfulness, the unlimited 
resourcefulness in design and craftsman- 
ship of the architects and their great, 
energetic, and far-seeing patrons — the 
bishops — who wrought the wonderful 
and many-named shrines. 

Honor to them and also to the ac- 
complished craftsmen who were able to 
put the glorious buildings together! 


February 8th, 1922. 
175 


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A SELECTION OF PLANS 


_ TO SHOW THE RELATION OF THE 
SEVERAL PARTS OF THE 
CATHEDRAL STRUCTURES 


pp 


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THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


Original Building, 1089-1100 


GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL. 


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PLAN OF CATHEDRAL AT GLOUCESTER 


178 


Pres CALHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


Original Building, 1095-1133 


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PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL AT DURHAM 


179 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 
Original Building, 1175-1206 


WELLS CATHEDRAL | 


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PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL AT WELLS 


180 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


Original Building, 1192-1200 


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LINCOLN CATHEDRAL 


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PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL AT LINCOLN 


181 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


Original Building, 1200-1250 


LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL 
$e 


Feet 


N. Aisle 


PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL AT LICHFIELD 


182 


iter PHEDRAL CHURCH, OF ENGLAND 


Original Building, 1220-1258 


SALISBURY CATHEDRAL . 


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PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL AT SALISBURY 


183 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


THE APPROXIMATELY CORRECT 
INTERIOR LENGTHS OF THE ENGLISH 
CATHEDRAL CHURCHES 


Interior Length Height of Vault 


iy Cathedral . 1 2 9°35 G5 aires 72 feet 
Canterbury Cathedral . . . 545 - Bou 
Winchester Cathedral . . . 526 ‘ Oh Ps 
York Cathedral” So eee neo ¥ OOn. 
Iaacoln Cathedral. 257) ez i 82 = 
Salisbury Cathedrals; > .2 ees Re Si 
Durham Cathedral . . . . 469 a Vora 
Peterborough Cathedral . . 426 7 oe 
Gloucester Cathedral .. . 407 i 63.2 
Norwich Cathedral *: . . . 407 a 72 ees 
Worcester Cathedral . . . 387 % 68.” 
Chichester Cathedral . . . 393 3 Gita 
Wells Cathedral 3 5 sagas 3 Ovasre 
Lichfreld Cathedral . =.” 39376 Zs 685°” 
Chester Cathedral: 7. 396 is Oi 
Hereford Cathedral . . . . 327 ia oa ie 
Rochester Cathedral . . . . 306.6 ” flat 
ceiling 
Carlisle Cathedral . . 7/2 a22201 < G5 feet 
Exeter ‘Cathedral ; -..  eseaee x TO ng 
Westminster Abbey . . .-. 423 ot 100 |” 
French 
Buildings for comparison dimensions: — 
St. Peter’sin Rome . . . . 614 feet 
St. Paul’s in London ))amseame 
Cologne in Germany .. . 525 ” 152 feet 
Amiens in France . . . . . 470-—> (€xt.J) 1405 
Beauvais in France . . . .Notcompleted142 ”’ 


The English Cathedral churches average (omitting 
Westminster Abbey) about one-half the height of 
French Amiens. 

Three of the cathedrals are longer than Cologne, 
the longest Gothic fane on the Continent, and are 
longer than Amiens. 

184 


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{E CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 
Diagram of the Relative Lengths 


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185 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


Diagram of the Relative Heights of the 


Vaulted Ceilings 


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THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


hieeerOlol ERS OF THE ENGLISH 


CATHEDRALS 
Built on the North Side Built on the South Side 
Canterbury Chichester 
Chester Durham 
Gloucester Norwich 
Lincoln Oxford 
Peterborough 
Salisbury 
Destroyed or Exist as Wells 
Sites or Remnants Worcester 
Ely 
Exeter None Built 
Rochester Bristol 
Winchester Carlisle 
Lichfield 
Manchester 
York 
Ripon 


187 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


THE CHAPTER ‘HOUSES*VOr rE. 
-ENGLISH CATHEDRALS 


Built at the North of the Cathedral None Built 
Canterbury . Rectangle Bristol 
Chester . Rectangle Carlisle 
Gloucester . . Rectangle attached Ely 

to Cloister Manchester 
Lichfield . Long Octagon 
Lincoln . Decagon 
Wells . Octagon 
York . Octagon 
Built at the Sauth Side of the Cathedral 
Chichester . Room over Sacristy attached to 
Transept 
Durham . Originally a Rectangle — now a 
Square attached to the Cloisters 
Exeter . Rectangle south of Transeptal 
Tower 
Oxford . Rectangle attached to Cloister 
Peterborough . Rectangle attached to Cloister 
Rochester . . Rectangle attached to Presbytery 
Salisbury . . Octagon attached to Cloister 
Winchester . Old Chapter House attached to 
Transept 
Worcester . . . Decagon attached to Cloister 
Destroyed or Sites only existing 
Hereford . on-South attached to Cloister 
Norwich . Destroyed — was attached to 


Cloister 


188 


Daee GATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


PiijteavaAby CHAPELS OF THE ENGLISH 
CATHEDRALS 


Chester, on East-West Axis, projects beyond Cathedral 


Chichester, ” 3 ? 

Exeter, 2 » » » 99 es 
Gloucester, ” a ” » » nf 
Hereford, ”’ 4 ” » » 
Lichfield, ~ 3 ;? ” ”» » 
Salisbury, © ”’ a ” » » > 
Wells, d > ” » 93 - 
Winchester, ”’ e 29 » » »» 
Lincoln, at East End of Presbytery 

Worcester,’ ”’ 3 23 » 

York, u >» » 45 

Canterbury in Crypt 

Ely, on North Side of Cathedral 


Oxford, in Central Aisle of North Chapel 

Durham, Galilee Porch on the West End of Cathedral 
Rochester, between south Aisle and Transept 

Norwich, built on East End and destroyed 
Peterborough, site at Northeast of Cathedral 


Bristol, none built 
Carlisle, be 4 
Manchester, ”’ i 


189 


" 


oe 


INDE TO ILLUSTRATIONS 


Amiens, France 
Amiens, France 
Amiens, France 
Amiens, France 
Beauvais, France 
Bourges, France 


Belem, Portugal 
Canterbury 
Canterbury 
Canterbury 
Canterbury 
Canterbury 
Carlisle 


Cloisters, List of 
Cologne, Germany 


Dimensions of Cathedrals, Table of 


Durham 
Durham 
Durham ° 
Durham 
Durham 
Ely 

Ely 

Ely 

Ely 


Ely 
Ely 
Ely 


IgI 


View with City Figure 13 
West Front eg tte 
Interior, West ere Ae, 
Choir Stalls te a7 A. 
Interior, East ares 
The Five Entrance 
Portals = 20 
Cloisters, Batalha hin caked 
General View i 2 
From Southwest eee ke’ 
Interior, West eta 4G 
Interior, West, Nave ” 49 
Cloisters AS Sg: 
East Window from 
Interior ear 
p. 187 
Interior, East Figure 48 
p. 184 
General View Figure 5 
View, Northwest ies 4 
Nave, West at O 
Interior, East Dems 
Plan Pp.r70 
General View Figure 8 
View, West ets 
Towers and Nave teed! 
Octagon and Lady 
Chapel sr nS 
Interior, West PEERY Fo 
Interior, East areas 
Interior showingOctagon” 547 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


Exeter West Front Figure 27 
Exeter View, Northeast “4 
Exeter Interior, East ar aay 
Exeter Interior, West mye eet 
Peter Choir Stalls ies 
Gloucester General View i 4 
Gloucester Nave, West Bey) 2X: 
Gloucester Ceiling of Choir Mek te) 
Gloucester Cloisters Pry 
Gloucester Plan p. 178 
Hereford General View Figure 7 
Hereford View, Northeast aS 
Heights of English Cathedrals p. 186 
Iona, Church at, Scotland Figure I 
Lengths of English Cathedrals p. 185 
Lichfield General view Figure 10 
Lichfield West Front fee 6: 
Lichfield Main Portal PoE 
Lichfield Interior, East Vomnnaey 
Lichfield The Lady Chapel — 

Interior 7 SOE 
Lichfield Plan p. 182 
Lincoln General View Figure 9 
Lincoln West Front Teas 
Lincoln Tower, Nave and 

‘Transepts IRS 
Lincoln East End ti Wee 
Lincoln Nave, West ee 
Lincoln Nave from Choir HAS ee 
Lincoln East Window from 

Interior 7 ere 
Lincoln Chapter House * RSH 
Lincoln Plan p. 181 
Manchester General View Figure 14 
Norwich General View sae tds 
Norwich Interior, East ee ee 
Norwich Interior, East—Choirr 7” 44 
Peterborough West Front oe 22 
Peterborough Retro-Choir ROS 


1g2 


THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND 


Salisbury 
Salisbury 
Salisbury 
Salisbury 
Salisbury 
Salisbury 
Salisbury 
Salisbury 

Rome, Italy 
Valladolid, Spain 


Wells 
Wells 


Wells 

Westminster Abbey 
Winchester 
Winchester 
Winchester 
Winchester 

York 


York 
York 
York 
York 
York 


General View Figure 11 
West Front ie te 22 
Spire and Transepts ns 3 
View with Cloisters ine tendo 
Chapter House Soe OO 
Interior, West haecdo 
Cloisters 868 
Plan pesos 


Cloisters of San PaoloFigure 73 
Cloisters of St. Greg- 


> 


ory 72 
West Front 2: MSEC) 
Lady Chapel—Chap- 

ter House sO 
Plan p. 180 
Henry VII’s Chapel Figure 15 
General View a 3 
West Front poe tay 
Interior, East Ee: 
Reredos git, By is: 
General View with 

City earl 2 
View and West Front ” 24 
East End ian 00 
Interior, East a yy 
Interior, West ee A, 
North Transept See 5O 


193 


DELIVERED AS AN TELUS Ate 
LECTURE 


. December 11th, 1906 
. February 9th, 1907 
. March 13th, 1907 


. November 7th, 1907 


. March 25th, 1909 


Public Library, Brooklyn 
Prospect Branch 
Public Library, New 
York Tremont Branch 
St. Margaret’s School, 
Nee 
Public Library, New 
York, 96th Street 
Branch 
Brooklyn Institute of 
Arts and Sciences 


REWRITTEN IN BOOK FORM 


July 1921 — February 1922 


78 Illustrations 


